Unwell
by MsPryde
Summary: There are a lot of takes on how the zombie apocalypse would affect someone with a physical handicap but how about a mental one? Lottie joins the WD group and finds herself falling for Daryl. These are her adventures while she tries to find out; Are her feelings reciprocated or is it just another figment of her imagination? DarylxOc Oc
1. Chapter 1

It's a stroke of luck. Serendipity, really. Lottie has never believed in luck though, or coincidence. What's meant to be was simply meant to be and that was that. Why the zombie apocalypse was meant to be…she's pretty sure she'll never know, what she does know, however, is that she's surviving it so far and there's a little girl who might not if she doesn't get her ass in gear.

She just stopped at the stream to get some water, she had been out for nearly two days and it was taking its toll on her in the form of…well in the form of worsening her "pre-existing conditions". The little girl was standing beneath a mossy mass of earth hanging over the side of the stream and for a moment Lottie was pretty sure she was a zombie and when she realized she was alive, Lottie was pretty sure she was…something else. But a real zombie came up to the stream only seconds later and the little girl let out a cry of shock and fear and Lottie was on it before she had entirely made up her mind about the girl.

Her name is Sophia. Thank Lottie for saving her. She wants her mom. Is Lottie going to hurt her? They were on a road. Yes, they were travelling in a group, there's a lot of people.

Lottie stares her down, unsure about the child standing in front of her but then nods her head. Her eyes soften at the sight of Sophia's smile. How could she ever have thought about saying no? About not helping her? She smiles down at her new counterpart and sighs, it wasn't as though she had any plans, right? She nearly laughs out loud at that but settles for a bigger grin and kicking at the zombie she'd killed a moment earlier.

They begin walking towards where Lottie knows the highway is, hoping the group will be there waiting, maybe looking for Sophia.

"What's yer name?" Lottie grins at Sophia's shy voice and strong accent.

"Loretta. Mostly people call me Lottie though." Lottie's accent is different and Sophia seems perplexed. It takes every ounce of willpower Lottie has not to reach out and touch Sophia, she knows how creepy that comes off, how she shouldn't even need to do it in the first place.

"Why…" Sophia starts and then quickly looks away, shyly, before continuing, "Why do ya talk like that?" Lottie stares down at her with her wide eyes before answering simply, "Why do you talk like that?" Sophia blushes and Lottie nearly laughs when she hears leaves rustling somewhere behind them.

She freezes. She looks at Sophia. Sophia hasn't seemed to notice. Lottie squeezes her eyes shut. Oh god, please, no. Just stop. Just for ten minutes so I can get this girl to her family if she even has one. Please. Please just go away.

She listens and doesn't hear any more rustling and she doesn't turn to look. They walk in pleasant silence with Sophia leading the way for nearly two more minutes when the rustling happens again. Twigs snap. Lottie checks Sophia's face and it's pleasant, ignorant. It screams "There's nothing wrong." Lottie squeezes her eyes shut again just when a loud –click!- is heard and pain goes shooting through her leg. Her eyes open wide and her right leg fails to support her, she's relying entirely on the left now. She hears "God damnit! What the hell you think you're doin?" loudly from behind her and Sophia DOES hear that, does acknowledge it by turning around and Lottie stoops down to check her leg just as another object goes whizzing by just above her head.

" !" Sophia yells and goes running towards the two men that apparently fucking shooting at them, Lottie brings her head up and lets out a little gasp while clutching at her leg.

"Daryl, she's alive! Don't shoot, she's alive!" A voice is yelling. "I see that!" Comes the irritated retort.

Lottie looks at them a little dizzily, Sophia is now hugging the leg of one of the men, he's thin, not very muscled but toned, he has a holster for his gun, short hair, a calm but in control type of face. "Cop" her mind supplies and she frowns a bit realizing he's been talking to her.

"Are you okay?" He repeats and she gives a very small nod, lips mashed tightly together.

"You bit?" The other man barks out at her and she flinches away from it. This man is definitely rougher looking, dirty, 5 o clock shadow, carrying a massive crossbow, "he shot you in the leg" her mind adds to the list and she ignores that one, he's wearing a rugged vest over a (wife beater? What is that?) something, and filthy pants, his accent is strong. "Backwoods Bastard" her mind supplies again and she finally stutters out a "No, no I'm not."

He eyes her like she's lying and she raises an eyebrow back at him before blurting out, "I'm not lying! I haven't been bitten or scratched, but I HAVE, however, been shot."

The cop seems to think this is new information because he glances over before lifting Sophia into his arms with an apologetic expression on his face.

"It was an accident, miss," he starts, since apparently his less polite friend isn't going to apologize, "I'm Sherriff Rick Grimes, this here is Daryl, and well, you met Sophia. You can come back to where our group is stationed on the road and we'll get your leg fixed up."

She stares at him for a long time. Wary, unsure. It strikes her suddenly that she never did touch Sophia. She has no proof of anything at all, this could be nothing. She sighs and looks away. She can feel their eyes burning into her so she turns back and begins shaking her head.

"We just found plenty of water too, you could use some, I'm sure. How about it? Come on, it's the least we can do for you finding Sophia."

Lottie huffs out a little sigh and rolls her eyes skyward.

"Alright. Ok, I'll go." She says simply, giving a little smile at them. Sophia cheers and shouts something that sounds like "Mama will love you!" as they start walking but Lottie isn't really paying much attention.

She's limping along slowly behind them and trying to ignore the pointed glances that "Daryl" is giving her out of his narrowed eyes. She doesn't realize that he's glancing because she's staring until he grunts out a dramatic "Why you lookin at me like that?"

She opens her mouth a little, but doesn't know what to say so she shuts it again, turning it downwards into a frown as well. She looks at the ground instead after that, realizing that she's always been odd and being in the zombie apocalypse doesn't particularly make her any less odd. If anything, she's sure it makes her seem more so.

But she's not prepared to start feeling self-conscious or guilty about the opinions of people who may not even be real so she bites her bottom lip and reaches out a hand, pawing gently at Daryl's arm. He jerks back his arm immediately, hitting her in the face with his crossbow as he does so and she falls to the forest floor in a heap, uttering a quiet, "Fuck" as she goes.

She's holding onto the spot with her mouth open in pain but not making any actual noise, she glances up at the men who have stopped walking and Daryl is glaring at her like he wants to leave her to be eaten by a zombie but she smiles up at him because she's just pleased to know he's real.

She vaguely hears Rick asking what the hell happened and tunes out Daryl giving him a short, irritated explanation as she uses a nearby tree to claw her way back up to her feet. She can see the highway with how close they are and she begins walking towards it. Daryl and Rick quickly catch up and pass her slow limp and soon she can hear a desperate cry of "Sophia!" and a motherly looking woman comes running down the hill from the road and quickly clutches Sophia to her as soon as Rick's set her down. It's a flurry of kissing noises and crying and "Mama!" and "Sophia!" that gradually changes into "You found her!" as soon as they've migrated up to the actual roadside.

Lottie takes a look around. Counting bodies, faces.

Everyone's curious about Lottie more than Sophia, it seems, its almost irritating in a way. She begins feeling anxious, claustrophobic, pressured by all the eyes suddenly on her after not being in a human presence for over…how long? A month? Somewhere in her brain is the exact number of days but she refuses to acknowledge it.

"Now, hold on," she hears Rick saying and she brings herself back to what's happening, "She's hurt right now and I just want to get her fixed up before we start questioning her and everyone starts crowding her, ok?" Lottie is grateful but she hears a scoff come from somewhere that she identifies as Daryl, she shoots him a pout and he stares at her like she's grown a second head. Rick walks her over to an RV and is about to help her inside when she shakes her head.

"I appreciate it but I'm fairly sure I can fix it up on my own, I just um, need to find somewhere to sit down, is all." Rick looks bewildered and to her left Daryl looks almost put off.

"Well! I was beginning to wonder if you could talk!" Rick laughs out and Daryl is squinting at her. She stares back until he asks, "Why you talk like that, its weird." Her jaw drops open at his bluntness and she shoulders the large backpack she's carrying, trying to think of how to answer that before turning her attention back to Rick.

"Uh, I think I'll just set up over there somewhere, patch myself up and then I'll be on my way, alright?"

Rick licks his lips and kind of frowns but then just nods his head and says, "I'll check on you in a few."

She makes her way to the back of a truck and opens the tailgate to sit on it. She takes her backpack off and tosses it into the bed of the truck haphazardly before struggling onto the bed herself. She takes a look at the effected leg.

Right leg, shot through the back of the knee, just above where her boots end, arrow, plastic, sturdy, used for hunting. She frowns. That means it's a bitch to get out.

Cut open? Cut through too many nerves, permanent damage to tendons. Pulling it out is the only way. She's a bit lost on how she's going to pull it out though. It's in a rather awkward spot and she can't exactly stand while she pulls it out.

Fucking Christ, when will I get a break? And she lets her legs dangle over the tailgate while she lets the rest of her body slam back into the bed with a sigh.

She closes her eyes and places one sleeve clad arm over her face until she hears a "You dead?"

She opens her right eye and peers through her yellow bangs to see Daryl looking over the edge of the truck bed, staring at her. She smiles at him.

"Not yet. I just. I…" she licks her lips and sits up to try to be eye to eye with him. Sitting in the bed of the truck makes it so they're about even. "I'm having some trouble."

He squints at her again and she's beginning to wonder if his eyes are permanently narrowed like he's pissed but then again people always wonder if her eyes are always like that of an owl's so she kind of gives up.

"What kind of trouble?" he asks, eyes still narrowed like she's about to pull a gun on him. As if to show she's not, she pulls her handgun out of the fanny pack like bag that's tied to her left thigh and sets it away from her, by her backpack.

"I can't get your little arrow out." She says quietly, looking up at him slightly. He snorts at her and comes around to the tail gate and looks at her leg.

"Ain't no 'little arrow', lady." He mutters and she grins in spite of herself.

"I'm Loretta." She says softly and he glances up at her, looking sort of surprised. She's sort of surprised too. She hadn't really intended to tell anyone In this group her name since she didn't intend to stay. Maybe it was the fact that he was interesting that made her do it? No. Her mind said in the voice that doesn't really belong to her but she's grown very used to. You did it because you know he's not one of your schizophrenic hallucinations.


	2. Chapter 2

I guess I'll give Daryl's pov a shot, even though I hate stories that switch pov maybe I can make it work out in that third person sort of way?

Xxx

She gives him fair warning but it doesn't stop the look of complete shock and maybe even fear on his face when it happens.

"I can't help it" she gasps between giggles, "I don't know why I do it."

He's stopped pulling the arrow out and its about halfway in, halfway out.

"That shit ain't normal. I've been stuck with one of these bastards before and it hurts like a bitch." He looks away hurriedly, women are usually put off by how much he swears and he looks to the pavement, wondering why he even cares if she's put off, but its obvious why. He looks back at her and she's grinning at him. A wide smile that reveals her oddly sharp looking canine teeth, her very pink lips are displayed even more in the grin somehow but the smile is most clear in her eyes. They're huge to say the least, she seems to always look surprised, and they're a very light brown, gold, green mix, like they can't decide what color they want to be. Her face is oddly perfect in shade, she's pale but she has rosy pink cheeks and her eyes are lined with- wait.

"Wait, are you wearin MAKEUP?" he blurts out at her, and behind him half of the group turns to stare.

Lottie makes a face at him but the smile in her eyes doesn't go away.

"Well…yeah. I mean, I guess, like. No. Uh." She gives him a sheepish sort of smile and he snickers in spite of himself.

"I just like makeup, it makes me feel more comfortable, you know? And like. Just because the world has gone to shit doesn't mean I have to LOOK like it." He snorts and laughs at that one and misses the absolutely shocked expressions of the others of his group at the fact that he's talking to someone, LAUGHING with someone. Lottie doesn't miss the looks, but she doesn't mention them. She simply reaches out and touches Daryl's arm.

He looks at her annoyed at that, laughter gone. "Why you keep touchin' me?"

She pulls her hand back as though she's been burned but he keeps staring at her expectantly. "WELL?" she sighs bitterly, combing a hand through her bangs. Lie or tell the truth? Lie or-

"Don't lie." It comes out just as harsh as the original question and her wide eyes look into his narrowed ones with obvious hurt. Hurt? She's hurt by him asking this? Why does she care, she doesn't even know him. Why does HE care for that matter?

"Uh. Just checking to see if you were real." She says softly and he replies with an annoyed, "You're weird." But she just beams at him after that and he goes back to pulling the arrow out of her leg which sets her off into hysterical half giggles while still bearing the tell tale expression of pain on her face. Once its finally out she sighs and squeezes her eyes shut.

"Is it bleeding bad?" She asks gently and he stares at it for a moment. "Not too bad."

She makes a mmm sound and he honestly doesn't know why he's still standing there.

"Thanks for getting it out." She says softly, reopening her large eyes and beginning to root through her backpack for something.

"Yeah, well, didn't wanna waste the arrow." He mutters, and it's a lie but he doesn't know why it's a lie, or why he tells it.

She smiles at him anyways, like he just told her a joke, he rolls his eyes in return. "Why you keep smilin like that?" It comes out too harsh but he can't take it back.

She pulls a big first aid kit out of her bag and a little black pouch before replying, "You ask a lot of questions, Daryl Dixon, you're usually so quiet, what's gotten into you?" She doesn't make eye contact while she's saying it, instead focusing on getting things out of the first aid kit and for a moment he's sure he dreamed it but then she's looking back up at him, eyebrows raised expectantly in his direction.

"How you know all that?" He narrows his eyes at her, was it someone he used to know that he simply didn't recognize?

She smiles brightly while carefully lifting her leg onto the tailgate. "I'm attracted to personalities, not physical forms. So to tell if I'm attracted to a person as quickly as possible, I have to be able to analyze and deduce as much about them as I possibly can as fast as I possibly can."

He makes a face at her and she laughs before dabbing antibiotic ointment onto a cotton swab and cleaning out the gash on her leg.

"You saying you don't get attracted to people?" And he can't hide his disappointment well enough. What was he doing standing here still again?

"No, no, no, I'm just saying that I can't see someone for the first time, know nothing about them and think 'oh god they're good lucking!' I have to know about them. Personality is what attracts me. Are they smart? Funny? Do they stutter when they're nervous? Are they optimistic? All that kind of thing."

And oh, Daryl thinks, just OH. Because of course this girl that is somehow giving him those stupid fucking butterfly feelings is attracted to PERSONALITY, which probably makes him the ugliest fucking person on the planet.

She laughs suddenly and reaches out again, touching his neck this time and he looks up at her, maybe irritated, maybe confused.

"I'll stop touching you if it really bothers you." Is all she says, in a voice so soft that its like a whisper, and then she lets go of his neck and continues cleaning out her cut, hissing and giggling a little at the pain before wrapping it up with gauze.

He watches her unzip the little black pouch and really, he has no idea why he's just standing there at the foot of the truck, watching her go about cleaning her wounds as though its normal. He commands himself to make a huff and walk back to his motorcycle without saying a word to her but his body doesn't do it, he stands still by the tailgate and watches until Rick comes up.

She's reading the label on a little bottle and then sticking the needle in the top of it when he appears at the side of the truck, seemingly out of thin air. She glances at him and gives a small shy smile but says nothing and quickly looks back at the needle.

"How's it goin?" Rick asks in his easy going voice and Daryl suddenly feels jealous of Rick. Of Rick's PERSONALITY, no less, but Lottie is looking at him and not Rick and Daryl glances back at her confused before answering Rick for her, as though its something he's done for years, "Fine, just got it out and cleaned."

Rick nods his head in approval and Lottie is smiling as she taps the needle out. "What's that?" Rick asks, completely curious and Lottie looks to Daryl again but he has no fucking idea what's in the poker or why she has it so he just raises an eyebrow at her and she finally looks to Rick.

"Its basically a tetanus shot, to make sure I don't get infected from the arrow or anything." Rick smiles at her and Daryl looks away quickly feeling a little sick for some reason.

"Where'd you learn to do that?" Lottie gives a little huff of laughter and says, "College, of course. I'm-or I used to be- a registered nurse." Rick gives her a look like he's just noticed her for the first time and Daryl feels himself getting annoyed, feels himself getting ready to turn and leave, go back to his bike, go hunting, anything-there's suddenly a hand on his chest and he looks back. Lottie is still looking at Rick but her hand is on Daryl's chest, as though its normal, as though its just resting there. He considers moving it but doesn't, wants to see how long she'll leave it there.

"That's interesting, uh-sorry, I don't know I ever got your name?" Rick says suddenly and Lottie smiles shyly back, her hand still on Daryl's chest. "Loretta, but most people call me Lottie or Lore." Rick smiles back, politely and says "Alright, Lottie, then. You being a nurse is…well, we'll call it a miracle really. You don't realize how useful people like you are until the end of the world happens and no one knows how to even fix a fever on their own. Lottie, I need to go talk it over with the rest of the group, but I think it would be great for everyone if you joined us. There's strength in numbers and we could definitely use your skills. In fact, a member of our group cut his arm earlier when a herd of walkers passed by, I'd really appreciate it if you took a look at him for me." He puts his hand on her sweater clad arm and gives her a pleading look, Daryl feels his blood begin to boil. _Why's he touching her?_

Lottie's hand slides down Daryl's chest and attaches to his arm instead, and then he feels ok again.

"I'll be glad to take a look at your friend once I'm all done here. Send him over to me in about ten minutes maybe?"

Rick nods and pats her shoulder before he walks away, giving Daryl a questioning look as he does so. Daryl backs up from the truck at that look, her hand sliding down his arm as he moves away and then grabbing onto the nearest hand to her. He looks at her.

"Don't leave." Her lips are puffed out in a pout and her eyes are wide and sad, he frowns at her. "Why not? Don't got no reason to stay over here." He takes another step back and she hops off the truck to keep him from going and only then does he realize-

"Holy shit, are you sure you went to college? You look like you're in the 5th grade." She shoots him a dirty look but simply says, "Oh, come on, you're not that much taller than me." Daryl snorts at that because, he's probably a good foot taller than her, at least.

"What are you four feet?" He finds himself joking with her. When was the last time he even smiled at someone?

"I am five feet tall, thank you!" and the way her accent pulls tall into something that sounds more like tull makes him crack a little smile. "And where'd you get that freakin' accent, anyways?"

She grins at him when she notices Rick hailing her over to the little group, standing in a circle in front of the RV. She sighs wearily and suddenly rubs her head against Daryl's shoulder like a cat. He looks down at her and considers shoving her off but realizes he doesn't really want to. She wraps her small arm around in his bicep and he walks her over to the group once again feeling like he's been doing this his whole life. Like its where he belongs.

He pushes that thought out of his head. Stupid. Mushy. Bullshit. Personality's a piece of shit, she's not gonna like him anyways. He has the urge to shrug him off her but he settles for glaring at Rick instead. Rick doesn't seem to notice so he glares at Shane afterwards.

"Alright everyone, here she is." Rick says, smiling and holding a hand out like he expects Lottie to come introduce herself to class. Lottie doesn't. She stays tucked slightly behind Daryl, holding onto his arm, comfortable with knowing he's real when she can't be sure about the rest of them. Rick seems like he doesn't know what to do with his arm when she doesn't go stand beneath it so he awkwardly points to her before saying "Uh, anyways, this is Lottie. She's a nurse and like I said before I think she'd be more than useful to have around. She's got a great attitude and she saved Sophia, giving her a place in the group is probably more beneficial to us than it is to her but I want to extend the invitation purely for the fact that she saved Sophia." Sophia's mother held her close at this, she still looked like she was going to explode into tears at any moment. Lottie's heart ached for her.

Another man to Rick's right and Sophia's left spoke up then. Fairly tall, bulkier build, muscle not fat, equal to Rick? Also a cop, holster for his gun, short hair, stern expression. Rick is a sheriff, this guy is a cop. Her brain whirs around and she strains to hear what he's saying over it.

"We don't know that she can pull her weight though, Rick. Just because she can clean up a cut doesn't mean that she's useful or that we should put ourselves at risk to help her. Anyone can clean out a wound."

Lottie isn't sure if she should feel annoyed or hurt or what so she says nothing, simply stares at him. Daryl's annoyed by it though, obvious in the reddening of his face and his muscles tensing beneath her fingers. She looks up at him.

"You won't be sayin that when you get your stupid ass shot." Daryl shoots out quickly and Lottie watches with mild interest as the two begin firing insults at each other with Rick eventually breaking it up.

"Lottie, I hate to ask this, I don't think its anyone's favorite subject, but have you killed a walker before?"

Lottie stares at him for a moment, looks up to Daryl who nods at her like its safe for her to answer this and she feels reassured, she notices out of the corner of her eye the looks that the rest of the group are shooting each other at her and Daryl's interaction and she makes a mental note to find out what the hell is going on sometime later.

"I assume by walkers, you mean the undead, and yes, I've killed….more than a few. I've killed… I want to say in the area of 300 now." Daryl peers down at her like he just found her in a cupboard and the rest of the group gapes at her like she's gone insane. Well. Like they've found out that she's gone insane. She shudders at that thought.

"Uh, then, yes, Shane, I think she can pull her own weight, what do you think?" Shane snorts and seems like he's about to say something particularly distasteful when Daryl all but growls at him, the group is staring at him now.

"You know, Dixon, I thought you were an antisocial little redneck but I guess as soon as a piece of ass comes into the picture you get more whipped than a horse's ass." Daryl surges forward like he's going to punch him and it knocks Lottie off balance, forcing her weight onto her hurt leg and she lets out a squeak before falling onto the ground. Daryl stops his movement and looks down, the whole group is watching him intently, even Rick. Daryl looks a little lost at first, like he's not sure if he should bend down and see if she's ok or if he should storm off somewhere but then she looks up to him with her stupidly big eyes and she gives him a little smile like "woops, clumsy me" and Daryl bends down and picks her up, amazed at how light she seems under the bigness of her jacket and boots. He turns to look at Shane and then at Rick.

"She's stayin." Is all he says and then he carries her back to the bed of the pickup truck, she could be heard giggling the entire way.


	3. Chapter 3

He isn't sure why he's sitting with her in the back of the truck watching the others go about their business together. He doesn't know how they got on the topic of what's in her bag either, but its been interesting enough, watching her spread out the contents of her massive backpack and smaller fanny pack across the bed of the truck, in between the two of them.

First Aid Kit, Sewing Kit, Syringes and medications, two cans of soup, one filteration water bottle, half a bag of cereal, a pair of pajama pants, an undershirt, a pair of panties that made Daryl go red in the face and pretend he didn't notice, makeup, the bat she was carrying when she met them is tethered to the back of the bag, its aluminum, sturdy. A handgun with plenty of shots left, a machete, two cans of spray paint, another jacket, and at the very bottom is a stuffed pig. He pokes at it but says nothing.

In the pouch strapped to her left thigh was the other handgun, 5 prescription bottles with assorted pills in them, all with the labels ripped off. He eyes them and when he asks about them she just sighs and says some things are better left unknown. He's annoyed by that answer. He feels like she should tell him. When it comes to nearly nightfall, Rick gathers them around again, Daryl is expecting her to take his arm this time and when she takes his hand instead he can't help the little butterflies creeping up in his stomach once again, no matter how much he wants them gone.

"While Daryl and I were out lookin for Sophia we came upon a house, an old farmhouse. I'm thinkin it might be an ok place to hole up for a while, until we find something more long term. I think we should camp out here for tonight and head over there first thing in the morning to see about it. We hardly saw any walkers in the wood when we were lookin too, which is a good sign. What do ya think?" The group exchanged glances between each other and then finally they all agreed with Rick. Lottie said nothing, just looked up at Daryl when he nodded his head.

Daryl takes her back to the truck where she begins putting her things back in her assorted bags when Daryl starts walking away. She stares after him, confused. Well, of course. He doesn't know her, he doesn't have any reason to stick around, he said it once already. She sighs feeling hurt and confused when a member of the group she hadn't noticed before walks up to the bed of the truck, she smiles at him softly, unsure. Shit. She wishes Daryl was there. How was she supposed to know whether…

"Hey, I cut my arm earlier, Rick told me to come see you. Glad we got a doctor in the house." She chuckles lightly, but avoids eye contact, his words don't mean anything if she's not sure…. She peeks around the man in front of her and sees Daryl talking to Sophia's mom, Lottie frowns. Why won't he come back?

"Don't mind Daryl," the man says simply, grinning at her, "He don't really talk much, sticks to himself." She narrowed her eyes at the man in front of her, suspicious. "So I gathered." She murmured simply. She peeks behind him again to see Daryl now talking to the elderly man standing in front of the RV. She frowns again.

"His name is Dale." The man says, noticing where she's looking. That one was confusing. She racked her brain. Had anyone introduced her to Dale? Had anyone said his name? Not sure, no way to be sure. She didn't say anything in return.

"Nice jacket, by the way, I love that movie, love most musicals." He says laughing and she peeks down at her jacket as though she forgot what she was wearing. She smiles back at him, "Thanks, it always puts me in the mood to like draw or something." She says and he chuckles at her, she likes him, she decides.

"I know what you mean, never could draw anything much myself though, just not what I'm good at. You look like you could draw though." She grins at him and he continues, "I'd love it if you could draw me sometime, or the whole group, maybe if you still had your charcoals you-" her grin begins to fade, "still had your charcoals" she peeks past him to look around for Daryl and notices him still talking to the older man but now they're both staring at her, both frowning deeply, both looking mildly concerned. No. NO.

"still had your charcoals"

How could she be so dumb. She looks back and the man is gone. Of course he's gone. He was never actually there.


	4. Chapter 4

She closes her eyes and waits for him. She knows Daryl saw her talking, laughing, smiling with thin air. She knows he'll be coming over to ask her what the fuck is wrong with her. She's sure he'll tell Rick, Rick will tell the rest of the group because it's the right thing to do and then they'll tell her they can't stay with them. She's a liability, she could shoot at nothing or accidentally shoot someone real. She can't be trusted.

Daryl walks up a moment later looking like he's mentally prepared himself for approaching a rabid dog and not a tiny woman. She looks up at him and cracks a smile, trying to pretend nothings wrong. He frowns at her. She lets her mouth slide to one side in a sad way.

"I was talkin to Daryl about you maybe sleepin the RV tonight." He says gruffly and she stares at him perplexed for a moment.

"He said you can stay in there but its gonna be cramped." He's fidgeting with his crossbow and she reaches out a hand and places it on his chest. Real.

She closes her eyes and gives a little sigh of relief.

"No, I want to sleep out here. I like this little truck." She says simply and Daryl stares at her. "Ain't safe out here."

"It isn't safe anywhere, really. I'd prefer to be out here, besides it leaves more room for the others."

Daryl stares at her for a moment and then nods. "Fine, whatever, just tryin to help you." He's about to walk away and she can feel it so she latches onto his wrist and stares at him, trying to think of a way to make him stay, think of a funny joke, a worthwhile reason, something interesting he would want to stay and listen to.

"You know before the world ended, vending machines killed more people than sharks each year?" she blurts out, and he stares at her and she's sure he's going to wipe her hand off his wrist like its mud and walk away.

"What the fuck?" he says instead and chuckles a little and she feels her worries melt away a little.

"Sit with me?" she asks in a small voice and he eyes her before hopping onto the tail gate next to her. "I gotta go take watch in a little bit, soon as it gets dark." She frowns at him and then smiles. "I'll go with you." He raises an eyebrow at her and then looks away.

"Why you wanna follow me around? Why don't you hang out with the other women or follow Rick or TDog around or somethin?"

"You don't think you're worth following?" she asks simply, while tracing the shape of his hand with her finger.

"I just don't know why you would want to." She looks up at him and the moment feels sweet, he's looking at her like maybe she's pretty or something and she knows she's looking at him all wonderstruck because so far she thinks he's kind of gorgeous and then it breaks with a

"Who were you talking to before I came over here?" her heart skips a beat.

She feels like she's going to choke on the air, throw up, and die, probably in that order and everything. She regains her composure though and manages to give Daryl a practiced confused look. "What do you mean?" she asks, he will ask "Just before I came over here? It looked like you were talkin to someone?" and she will reply "Oh! I was just talking to myself, trying to remember something was all." And that will be the end of that, she'll just be more careful and she won't get caught.

Instead he replies "You know exactly what I mean, Lore." And she's caught so off guard that her fake smile falters and she splutters out a little "wha-what?" and he fixes her with a hard stare and she knows she's caught, knows she's fucked all within 5 hours of finding human life she's going to be out casted, fantastic.

"I um." She starts but then a black man walks up to the truck looking weak and tired and Lottie turns to Daryl and notes his irritated expression at the man.

"Hey, man, sorry to interrupt," the man starts out and Daryl grunts in return. Real-her mind tells her and she sighs again. "Rick told me to come over so maybe if you don't mind you could take a look at this gash I got here?"

Lottie glances at Daryl who is now leaning back in the truck in a leisurely way that Lottie won't admit makes him look handsome and he raises an eyebrow at her, she smiles at the man and nods, asking what happened.

"Daryl saved my damn life, that's what happened." Daryl grunts again and avoids eye contact for the duration of T Dog's dramatic retelling of Daryl's heroics but Lottie catches him glancing at her when he thinks she's not looking and when he does she grins extra big and adds an extra "Wow" and awestruck jaw drop just to catch the smug little smirk he does afterwards.

She gets his arm stitched up neatly, cleaned up and then gives him a shot afterwards to prevent infection. He thanks her profusely and tells her dinner is about to be ready and to go over to the little fire the others have built in between the RV and Rick's car. She smiles and gives a little shrug, hopping off the tail gate, putting too much weight on her right leg and-

Daryl catches her.

"Haven't you ever been hurt before? You're the clumsiest girl I've ever met." He grumbles and she takes his arm around the bicep and rests her head on his arm and lets him lead her to the fire. The stares they get from the women around the fire are enough to keep her choking on her water throughout the whole meal and she doesn't actually eat a single thing.

"Aren't you hungry, girl?" Lori, Rick's wife, worried face, mother, distanced from husband, glances at shane, not close to the other women, liar. Lottie gives her a small smile but says nothing.

Sophia's mom comes to talk to her after the meal, Daryl is getting ready to take over watch and is standing at the bed of the truck looking like he wants to do something but doesn't know what and Lottie is watching him rather amused.

Sophia's mom, kind eyes, shy, quiet, flinches, abused? Short hair, markings from past bruises. Abused. Single parent currently, not grieving, domestic abuse. Offered extra off her own plate to Daryl at dinner, kind, caring, worrying, motherly. Her mind adds instantly and she looks to Daryl unsure in spite of what her mind has supplied for her to go off of.

He nods at her and makes an "ok I guess" sort of face and she smiles at the woman as she comes up.

"I want to thank you for finding my Sophia and returning her to me. I can't tell you how much I owe you, I just don't have any idea…" the woman's eyes begin brimming with tears and Lottie leans over, puts one hand to the back of the woman's head and another hand on the small of her back, brings her forward and kisses her gently on the forehead.

"You are an amazing mother. You don't owe me anything." Lottie says simply and Sophia's mom shakes her head and looks at Daryl in confusion, Daryl sends her a shrug and the woman shakes her head, wiping the few tears from her eyes.

"Well the least I can do is bring you a few blankets if you're going to be sleeping out here all by yourself." Carol, Lottie's mind rakes up at last and she thinks; that will be easy to remember at least.

"No, no, Carol, don't worry about it. I'll be fine. Just go get some rest with Sophia." She smiles brightly at Carol and Carol gives her a long hug before turning back to go to the RV. Daryl grunts at Lottie after Carol is out of earshot and Lottie looks at him curiously.

"You shouldn't have said no, you could use some blankets you know."

Lottie smiles at him. "That's really sweet of you to even care." Daryl gives her a startled look and then grunts again and walks off to take his watch. About an hour later everyone has gone to bed, she checks her watch to find its already 10:15 and yawns, carefully leaping off the truck's tailgate and pulling her pajama pants out of her bag before deciding she can't wear them. She needs to be prepared to get up and running since they're all out in the open. Instead she takes off her long leather boots and pulls off her gigantic jacket, revealing a loose tank top over a strapless undershirt. She pulls off the tank top and then pulls out a little mirror from her makeup bag, checking behind her shoulder to discreetly make sure no one sees her. All clear. Except. She points the mirror up a little to the roof of the Rv and sees, yes, one person is staring at her. She feels more than a little self-conscious but ah, well, she peels off the strapless top as well, being sure to keep her back to the RV and then she undoes her bra, peeling it off and pretending to stretch to peek in the mirror again, Daryl's face is a mixture of confused and enjoyment and she'll take what she can get, she thinks, so she pulls the loose tank top back on but leaves everything else off before padding her way over to the RV.

She crawls up to the top and whispers a hello to Daryl before proceeding to roll over him to get to his other side. He looks at her like she's completely mental and oh god, she hopes he's forgotten about earlier.

He scopes out the tree line before allowing himself to stare at her, she's lying on her back staring at the stars, she looks tired but absolutely

"Dying." She says suddenly and he's so shocked that he makes a face and she has to clamp a hand over her mouth so as not to wake the others with her laughter. He makes a face at her again for laughing at him and that just makes her laugh longer. When the laughing finally dies down and he's scoped out the tree line again twice, as well as the main road in both directions, he asks her what the hell she means. Is she dying?

"No, no, nothing as interesting as that. I just saw a really brightly glowing, beautiful star and that usually means that star is dying or could even already be dead." She reaches a hand out towards the sky and makes a fist as though she's caught a star in her hand. He stares at her.

"You're the weirdest girl I've ever met."

"I'm a lady, thank you very much." He smiles at her and she smiles back and she leans forward and he's so sure she's going to press those pink lips to his own and then she tugs back away and pulls a pack of cigarettes out of. .. he's not quite sure where.

She pulls one out and lights it up and then pulls a second out for him.

"I'm pretty sure you smoke, am I wrong?" she asks, big eyes curious and her head cocked to one side, waiting for an answer.

"Uh, yeah." He says dumbstruck, putting it in his mouth. She leans forward and lights his cigarette off her own. He's close enough to smell her, close enough to kiss her for sure, close enough to feel her warmth coming off her, close enough to hear the barely there breaths she's taking through her nose and then she's gone, on her back far away again. He feels like punching himself in the face for getting soft, for wanting her close, for caring, for. Everything.

"Thank you," She says suddenly, snapping him from his judgmental thoughts, "For everything today. It means a lot, really. Just. You're really…something." She ends shyly and then clambers over him and starts climbing down the RV.

"I guess I'm going to try to get some sleep… I hope you're not up here all night long." She finishes simply and leaves without another word.

Ten minutes later Carol comes to the back of the truck bearing blankets and when Lottie asks Carol says simply, "He told me not to let you know but it was Daryl that told me to bring them, said someone's got to take care of you and it might as well be him."


	5. Chapter 5

I'd appreciate some reviews telling me what I need to improve on and what parts of her or this story that you don't like. I've been told I'm a decent writer but I'm always pleased to get some criticism. Thanks for reading!

She wakes up gasping for air and shoving the blankets off her as though she's being strangled by them. She's quiet but frightened and she muffles the noises of her breathing as she takes a look around, trying to assess her current situation. Its early still, the sun is far from being up and she guesses the time is around five or so, a quick glance at her watch proves that its 5:23 and she shivers while tugging up her tank top, but leaves the blankets in a pool around her waist. She arches her back and stretches over the side of the truck using the moment to scan the area. The small Asian boy is on top of the RV now, glancing around anxiously. She furrows her eyebrows and peeks around for Daryl.

She's about to get out of the truck and go searching, just so she knows where he is but then she realizes he's right there, he's been there all along. He's lying to the left of her, on his left side with his back to her and his cross bow is haphazardly resting on the edge of the tail gate. She reaches out one of her small hands and touches the back of his neck, gently.

Real.

She smiles a little and then carefully climbs over the edge of the truck, stepping on the tire and then carefully onto the asphalt she grabs her clothes off of the tailgate and pulls them on. She had slept in her shorts so they were already on, she hated wearing the same clothes day after day. She felt filthy, she frowned as she pulled up her tan leather boots, courtesy of a mall she raided when all this had just begun. She tried not to think about it.

She winced as her boot came up to the point where the arrow had gone in and she rubbed at it a little, trying to ignore the itching and failing, she frowned and pulled on her oversized black sweater, pulled her hair into a ponytail and then folding it in half and pinning it in a wiry mess of a bun, leaving her bangs to hang out in front of her eyes. She needed to cut them.

She pulled out her mirror and quickly did her makeup. Foundation, strong liquid eyeliner, a little blush, a little colored eyeshadow-blue that day. She knew it seemed ridiculous, worrying about makeup during the apocalypse but it was a big part of her. She had never felt right leaving the house without makeup before and she wasn't going to change now.

She pulled out her one hand gun and slid the baseball bat out of the truck bed before wandering to the edge of the road, peering out into the forest. She jumped up and down a few times, trying to get her blood pumping. She peeked over the side of the truck again. Daryl's face seemed peaceful, perfectly resting. She smiled down at him and wanted to-

No.

She grabbed her filter bottle and the pouch she strapped around her leg, tucking it inside and then securing it to her thigh. She gave a little hmm and breathed in the cool air, considered taking her cigarettes and then leaving them near Daryl's hand instead and then she carefully stepped off the side of the road and down back into the forest.

He groans when he wakes up, rolling over and staring at the pale blue sky before remembering where he is, what he's doing there. He looks to his right and then sits up. Lottie's gone.

He groans and rubs at his eyes, looking around him. Her backpack is still there, he rolls his eyes and sighs in annoyance before noticing the pack of cigarettes next to him. He smirks and grabs it, finding 7 cigarettes and a lighter tucked inside. He grabs his crossbow and sits on the edge of the tailgate for a moment, lighting up a cigarette and looking around when he notices Glenn on top of the RV waving his arms around, staring directly at Daryl. He gives an irritated grunt, what the fuck does he need now?

And then saunters over to the RV, choosing to stay on the ground and grunt out a "What" instead of climbing up. Glenn leans over the side of the RV and frowns down at him. Daryl gives an irritated noise and Glenn sighs back. "That girl, Lottie, right? She uh. Where…do you know where she went?" Daryl narrows his eyes at that. "What you mean? She ain't around here, with the other women or something?" Glenn looks away and licks his lips before looking back, nervously.

"Look she… I saw… I saw her getting dressed," Glenn is blushing and Daryl wants to punch him in the face. "You SAW her getting dressed or you WATCHED her, which is it?" he growls out and Glenn gives an audible gulp, tugging at the collar of his shirt.

"I uh. I just saw it, kind of, I guess? I mean, ok I guess I watched, man but it was only a minute and I was just watching because no one else was up yet and I was I was just curious! And Then she walked off into the forest, at first I thought maybe she was going to go pee or something and then she didn't come back, but I didn't want to leave but its been probably about an hour now…"

Daryl gives a frustrated growl and wants to punch a hole in the side of the RV but he settles for tapping out his cigarette against it and walking away, angrily.

He's storming around the group's area, trying to put things together, figure out where she's gone, figure out what to do when the others wake up.

Lori, Andrea, and Dale come out of the RV and a few minutes later Carol joins them with Sophia and Carl. Rick steps out of the car he's been driving and Shane steps out of his, they all join into a little circle, leaving Glenn on top of the RV alone. T Dog stays inside the RV, Dale says he's not feeling well.

Daryl marches over to Carol almost immediately and grabs her shoulder, she looks scared and worried but he lets her go and stares down at her instead. "Lottie tell you she was goin somewhere?" Carol stares at him and shakes her head, confused. "I woke up and she was gone." Rick overhears this and brings it to the entire group's attention.

"Lottie's gone?" "Has anyone seen her?"

Lori speaks up then, "Wasn't she sleeping in the back of that truck? She could've left in the middle of the night. We'd never know."

Daryl looks pointedly towards the edge of the woods, not meeting anyone's eyes , "She was still there around 3:30 or so, that's when Glenn took over my watch, I went to the truck."

"You went to check on her?" Lori asks, shocked.

"I slept there." He answers, finally meeting her eyes with a hard look. Tired of her stupid questions.

"Ok….well…if she was there around 3:30 and its barely… what, 6:30 or so now, where'd she go in those 3 hours? Where is she?"

"Uh guys?" Glenn's voice from the RV, they all peer up at him, "She's at the truck again and she's…covered in blood."


	6. Chapter 6

ZERO. I have absolutely zero reviews on this story right now and I'm greatly saddened :C

I'd really appreciate some feedback guys. :/

Thanks for reading anyways though.

She sits up on the tail gate and gulps down some water, her injured leg is aching like a bitch and she feels a little stupid for going zombie hunting with it fucked up the way it is. Daryl, Rick and Carol approach the truck. Lori is watching the kids and the others hang behind by the RV.

Daryl looks particularly peeved (pissed, more like it) she notes.

"Where the hell were you? Why you got blood all over you?" Daryl snarls at her and she flinches away from him, Rick shoots Daryl a look and scoots closer to her, talking in his usual, calm, cop voice.

"We're just concerned. Where did you run off to? Glenn said he saw you leaving early this morning and now you're back and, well, you're covered in blood. So first thing I have to know is, are you bit or scratched?"

She frowns and shakes her head, forcing herself not to look at Daryl before she does so.

Carol stands quietly concerned to Daryl's right, just a little space aways as though she's afraid he might explode. He kind of looks like he might.

"I um. I just went into the woods to get some water, I encountered some zombies and took them down, it's a good thing…" She says softly and hands her water bottle to Rick.

"We have plenty of water here, Lottie. We don't need people running off at all hours of the night."

"I'm not asking anyone to look after me," she says in a little huff, her lower lip sticking out in a slight pout, "I'm glad to be accepted into your group but I can't be under someone's thumb all the time, I just.. I'll feel claustrophobic, nervous, controlled. I can't do that. I can take care of myself and if I don't come back one day, well, you'll carry on just like you did before you met me. I'm not important." She says, staring Rick down with her big eyes. They appear to be glowing in the sunlight.

Rick sighs and rubs between his eyes before shaking his head, "Yeah, alright. I guess I can't exactly stop you but if you're going to be part of this group then we all need to work together. Maybe you can take watch sometimes, or help the ladies cook, everyone has to pull their weight around here."

"Of course," she says softly, as though she's been scolded, "I can't cook for shit though, but I think I'd be good at doing watch. I'm kind of an insomniac, don't sleep much and I have 20-20 vision so… but I'm..um. I … get..no watch would be good." She nods as if to reestablish her point.

Rick eyes her suspiciously.

"There something you want to tell me?" Again, the calm, reassuring, coaxing, cop voice.

She does look to Daryl that time but he's glaring at her, hard.

"Don't look at me, you're the one who went runnin off in the middle of the night, without anyone to keep you safe, without me." It's out of his mouth before he can stop himself and after he says it he snaps his mouth shut like he's afraid he'll say more if he doesn't close it right then. She gives him an apologetic look, her eyes filled with hurt and she reaches out to touch him but he jerks away.

Her eyes widen even more at that and she looks as if she's about to cry.

"Daryl!" Carol all but hisses at him and he fixes her with a pointed "WHAT" look that makes her shake her head.

"Well," Rick starts again, suddenly looking very awkward, "If you have something you need to tell me, now would be the time."

Her brain suddenly seems to power on, moving what feels like 1000 miles a second. Tell them. Gain trust. Lose trust. Risk to them. Too heavy of a risk. Unstable. Confusion. Misunderstanding leading to fear. Threat? Useless during watches. Freak. Leave her behind.

"No, I don't think so. I just don't sleep much and like to take random walks in the forest to patrol for zombies… I don't… think there's anything much else to say." She smiles at him in an apologetic way and he nods. She's used to lying about it. It's easy.

Daryl snorts loudly though and casts a "WHATEVER." In her general direction before stalking off, Carol on his heels.

Rick nods at her again and then walks back to Lori and Carl.

"Daryl! What is wrong with you?" Carol's motherly voice is scolding him and he shoots her a look as he leans against an SUV, pulling out his hunting knife and sharpening it on a rusty piece of metal off the side of the car.

"What you talkin about?" he grumbles out at her and she crosses her arms over her chest and damn, if Merle saw him now getting talked to like he was a little kid again he'd probably beat him upside the head for being a pussy.

"Daryl Dixon," Carol sighs and when Daryl glances up at her she's looking at him with kind eyes not angry ones and he stops sharpening his knife to make eye contact for a moment, "I don't know why or how it happened so fast, but I think you're going crazy for this girl." She giggles a bit at the end and Daryl frowns at her, wrinkling his nose involuntarily with annoyance.

Carol just giggles more at that and looks behind her to check on Sophia, when she looks back, Daryl is staring pointedly at the truck and Carol looks in that direction instead.

Lottie has taken off her big jacket and is pulling off her blood soaked red tank top, seeming to not give a shit about the other people in the group possibly seeing her. She wipes her arms and hands off with the dirty tanktop and fixes her bra a little. Daryl is watching wide eyed with an almost unreadable expression.

Almost.

Carol gives a low wolf whistle and Daryl snaps his head back in her direction. Carol giggles again and shakes her head.

"Tell me about her," She says gently, "And I don't mean the awful things you want to do to her, I mean what's got you so interested so fast." Daryl all but gapes at her and she almost laughs again but instead places a soft kiss to his forehead. He looks grumpy about it but more or less agreeable.

"She's uh. She's smart," Carol nods encouraging, kind eyes glowing in the bright sun and he continues, "Real smart. She's a nurse… probably way too smart for me. She laughed when I was pulling the arrow out of her leg, she wasn't even pissed that I shot her, she took the pain pretty well so I guess she's tough enough to handle a little… she um. She smiles a lot. At me. She smiles at me a lot…" He peers at Carol and to her he looks like a little boy, confused, shy, and crushing on a girl he met at school, "She smiles like I'm funny, like I just told her a damn joke. Her eyes are pretty and her hair is just…nice. Smells nice."

He shoots Carol a glance that seems like he's expecting to be made fun of but Carol just smiles and nods, finding it hard to believe that Daryl might be willing to open up to someone.

"Go on. What else? What makes her different than Lori or Andrea or any other girl." It's a statement, a push in the direction she wants him to go and he nods curtly and takes it, looking over at where she's sitting in the truck as he begins talking.

"She um… she touches me." He blushes at that and Carol's eyes widen a bit before he explains, "She's always putting her hand on my shoulder or my chest, holding my hand, taking my arm, like she's known me her whole life. She looks at me like she relies on me and I don't get it. I just met her. What the hell does she want!" He grunts out the last part and runs his hand through his hair. Carol's eyebrows knit together sympathetically.

"She said she ain't attracted to people's bodies, she's attracted to their PERSONALITIES. So I know I'm wastin my fuckin time, ain't no way she's going to… why the hell do I even care, ain't like she's important, don't even know her…" He angrily slams his fist against the SUV and Carol steps forward and wraps a hand around his arm.

"Hun, you wait right here. I'm gonna go talk to her." Carol gives him a smile and starts to turn away but he grabs her back.

"Uh uh. Why the hell would I let you go talk to her after you heard everything I just said! I shoulda known you were gonna try to tell her, set us up or something." He grumbles but its half hearted and Carol can tell so she just giggles at him, removing his calloused hand from her arm.

"I'm just going to ask her what she thinks of you, I won't tell her anything you said, ok? And then I'll come right back here and tell you what she thinks and you know what? I bet you it's all about how sexy she thinks those muscles are." She winks at him and he gives her an estranged look, the equivalent to "Mom, that's weird" and Carol giggles again before hustling over to the truck.

"Hey." She says, trying to hide her grin as she peers over the side of the truck at the girl lying in the bed of it. Lottie sits herself up and peers past Carol, looking at Daryl, she accidentally brushes her hand against Carol's wrist as she does so and then she smiles.

"Hi. Carol, right?" Carol nods in return and gives a little giggle out.

"You seem to have taken a liking to Daryl there." Carol says, her nose wrinkling up as she smiles down at Lottie. Lottie makes a face like she's trying to frown but can't because she's smiling and peeks past Carol at Daryl again who is staring at them but he quickly turns away. Carol noticed and giggles, Lottie laughs out loud and leans back into the truck bed.

"Uh, yeah, he's rad, you know? I just… he's sweet. He's smart, he's interesting. He doesn't think I'm a total freak. He's…he's a real gentleman."

A snort sounds from behind Carol and Lottie sits up on her elbows to see Lori standing there. Lottie frowns.

"Did I just hear someone call one of the Dixon brothers a GENTLEMAN?" Carol is frowning now too and she looks a little uncomfortable but she smiles when Lori looks at her.

Lori looks between Carol and Lottie and then smirks in the way Lottie has only ever seen pretty, stuck up, queen bees do and she adds, "That man is far from a gentlemen, I'm not even sure he's a man so much as a wild animal. A caveman, maybe. You'd be better off staying away from him, he's a loner pretty much anyways most of the time."

Lottie stares at her and says nothing. Carol frowns but looks away, timidly.

Lori's smirk fades and she stares at Lottie for a while before looking awkward and stepping away from the side of the truck.

"Anyways… Rick says they're gonna go looking for that house he and Daryl saw in the woods yesterday, it might be a decent place to try to hole up for a while… Are you goin with them?"

Lottie nods her head once, curtly. Lori gives a little nod back and a wry smile and then walks away, pulling Carol with her. Daryl is frowning in their direction when they pass him, but then he follows them to where Rick is laying out the plan.


	7. Chapter 7

I got a few reviews, thank you guys so much! I'd love to hear some more constructive criticism, thanks for reading!

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

Lottie stays in the back of the truck, straining to listen to Rick's instructions as she wipes blood off her beige, leather boots. She pulls a hunting knife out of the right one and whimpers as it goes over her wound. She changes the dressing on it, checking her self made stitches once the gauze is off. She pokes at a little and hisses with the pain, rubbing some more antibiotic ointment over it before redressing it in gauze.

Somewhere in the background she can hear Rick still.

"…Shane. Daryl you can go with Glenn and uh…well I guess if T Dog is feeling up to it with his hurt arm, he can go with Lottie."

"Dad, I want to go!" Lottie glances over to see Rick's son dancing by Rick's legs, giving him puppy eyes and a pout. Lori looks pissed but Rick looks like he's battling himself internally to let his son go with them.

Daryl speaks up then, sounding annoyed, as usual, "Lottie can't go with T Dog, man, you gonna put two injured people together?"

Rick seems to contemplate this before turning to T Dog, "Do you think you're fit to go out there today, or not? I know you want to help but if you go out there and you aren't capable you're going to put other people at risk." T Dog stares Rick down before shaking his head.

"Ok. Carl, you can come with me and Shane," Carl jumps up with excitement at that and Rick pointedly ignores the look Lori gives him, "Daryl, maybe you'll feel better if Lottie goes with you and Glenn." Daryl grunts like he doesn't care but Carol gives him a knowing smirk that makes him blush a little.

"We'll go alternate directions, curving from here to meet at the house, if we miss each other, that's ok, just try to be back here in about two hours, everyone got it? Its about 8 right now, let's try to meet back here at 10."

Lottie pulls her jacket back on, zipping it up to her chest, its big enough to go down to nearly her knees and almost looks like a baggy, shapeless dress. She rolls the sleeves up to her elbows to allow better movement and hops down off the tailgate of the truck just as Glenn and Daryl approach her. Shane, Rick and Carl walk past them and continue down into the woods.

"Yer comin' with us." Daryl says gruffly and Lottie smiles at him, before looking at Glenn curiously. Her eyes search him for a moment.

Small, thin, fast, easy going, fidgety, nervous, bad shot, better with close range weapons.

"I'm Glenn." He says somewhat nervously and Daryl shoots him an angry look. Lottie fidgets uncomfortably, raising an eyebrow at Daryl.

"Uh. Lottie. Or Loretta, or Lore. I mean. Lottie's fine." She babbles out, no louder than a small mumble and Glenn smiles at her easily. She averts her gaze to the ground and latches onto Daryl's arm but he shoos her off him.

"Need to be able to shoot." He says gruffly and she tries to pretend she's not hurt as she grabs her handgun and bat off the back of the truck, readying herself for the trip. They began walking off the side of the road into the forest and she felt like she was aching to touch him, just hold on to him even though she already knew he was real. She wanted to hold on to him. He was stable, he was solid, he was real, he was…everything she needed.

She shoved the thought to the back of her head and tried to focus on the task at hand.

"Daryl! Wait!" Carol's voice suddenly rings out and Daryl looks back at the woman standing on the edge of the road, calling to him. He grunts in irritation but hikes back up to the roadside and they exchange words, giving pointed glances in Lottie's direction when they think she's not paying attention. She doesn't hear a single word they say to each other but when Daryl comes back down the roadside he looks smug and he tells her in his rough voice, "You stay by me, I'm protectin' you." and she smiles at him even though she doesn't care if she's protected one way or another.

Xxxxxxx

They've met up with only 5 "walkers" (as they call them, zombies as she calls them) on the way to the house, 3 taken down by Daryl, 1 by Glenn and 1 by Lottie.

She would have taken down more, and she wants to tell them that, she wants to tell them she's taken down more than 5 on her own before but she doesn't know how to tell them that she only hesitated because she didn't want them to catch her swinging at nothing but air if it turned out that she was wrong.

She tells them instead that her leg is hurting badly and she's slow because of it, they seem to believe her and Daryl takes a second to tuck her behind him every time he sees a walker.

The house looks big from the outside but in reality there are only 5 rooms, two bathrooms.

With eleven people it would be more than a little bit cramped. They scan the house anyways, doing a thorough check for walkers or even the sign that someone had died and turned into a walker but there's nothing. Lottie finds cards and emergency numbers stuck on the fridge and one of them tells her that it's a summer cabin that rich people come to vacation in. There's not even anything in the fridge, not that it works any more. It's a good sign that means that it's probably isolated. She shows Daryl the card and checks her watch and tells them it's probably time to head back. They got to the cabin later than expected taking the route they had so Rick, Shane, and Carl had probably been there earlier.

They only had about fifteen minutes to get back to the road side if they wanted to be on time.

They're nearly there when they hear it. The way Glenn and Daryl's heads snap up tells Lottie that they heard it too. Real.

She's racing in the direction of the shot as soon as she hears a familiar voice yelling out in anguish. She's not sure if the others hear the yell, if its even real but she's running towards it. Daryl is calling her; she can hear it somewhere behind the sound of leaves smashing and twigs snapping under her feet. She can hear him somewhere behind the sound of her breaths shuddering and loud, coming out in irregular huffs. She sees them ahead of her, she can see Rick clutching the little body of Carl to his chest and running with him, following a heavy man with a shot gun. She stops running and waits for Daryl and Glen to catch up to her. She notices the pain in her leg for the first time and lets out a little noise like she's just been stuck with a pin. She clutches at the back of her leg just as Daryl and Glen get to her, both panting heavily. She removes her hand when she feels the wetness and when she pulls it back to look its covered in blood.

Daryl grabs his hand and looks at it himself, shoving her around so he can see her leg.

"I ripped out my stitches, it was an accident," she says quickly, still catching her breath, "But Carl's been shot, you need to go back to the highway and tell Lori, they're going somewhere, there must be another little house in the woods just this way. I have to go to them, they might need me, I'm a nurse, they might need me." She doesn't know why she repeats herself. She thinks it might be to tell herself more than anything but she doesn't know. She starts running again without saying anything more and she can hear Daryl call after her one more time but after that she hears nothing but the sounds of her own noisy breaths in her ears.

She can see the house just when she feels like giving up, stop running, lie down, sleep. She pushes herself to go faster and she can feel the blood leaking down into her boot now. A woman is just coming out the front door of the house when she runs up, carrying a baseball bat covered in blood and probably looking like a complete mess. She looks frightened of Lottie but Lottie just wheezes out, "They're at the highway, I'm a nurse, I can help, where are they?" and the woman shows her to the room where little Carl is in a bed and Christ, he looks so small, why do children always look so much smaller when they're hurt?  
"I'm a nurse." She says as soon as she's in the room, there's an elderly man standing over a bunch of medical equipment.

There's blood all over the sheets and that's the primary concern, he's lost so much already and he's losing even more.

"He needs blood." She says immediately, "Take mine, give him my blood."

"You have the same type?" Rick asks, he's vibrating with shock and he has blood smeared all over the front of his shirt, blood on his face and hair. Lottie finally spots Shane in the other room, she must have missed him when she came in.

"It doesn't matter. I'm O-." She's already found the Ivs and has picked it up, finding Carl's vein and putting it in.

"I- I don't think I can do it to myself." She says softly, and the old man comes over to her, finds her vein and looks at her warily.

"You sure you want to do this?"

"Definitely, take it all if you need it."


	8. Chapter 8

"We need to get the bullet out, that's the number one concern, we've got one piece but there are plenty more. What can you do?" the old man, Hershel? Is asking her.

"Anything, everything, I'm not a doctor but I am a nurse, I can do plenty. If you open him up and take out the pieces, I can stitch them closed as soon as you're done, no need to waste time."

She has a tube sticking out of her arm, leading into a glass bottle where her blood is going before being fed into the boy.

"There are small fragments of the bullet left in there, we can't get them all out at once…at the moment he really needs blood, we'll have to deal with the fragments later."

"Lori, Lori needs to know, she needs to know." Rick storms out of the room and whether its to find Lori and tell her himself or get Shane, Lottie doesn't know.

"There's internal bleeding, a blood vessel must have been severed." She glances at him, scared and Rick comes charging in a moment later, Shane at his heels.

"We need to get the rest of the fragments out but we can't do that without putting him under, he's moving too much and other pieces are much deeper. I could sever an artery and he'd be dead within minutes." Hershel tells him, and Lottie stands up. She feels light headed but says nothing.

"You need a respirator, sutures, extra surgical equipment, anesthetics…" Lottie says quietly and Rick stares at her and then his eyes go back to Hershel, he looks wild, crazed.

"If you had all that you could save him?" He asks and the large man that apparently shot Carl speaks up from behind him, "The nearest hospital went up days ago…"

"So what do we do?" Lottie asks before sitting back down. She can't stand too much anymore. She's feeling tired.

"The high school." The man puts in and they begin talking about who's going and who's responsibility it is and what's what and Lottie tunes them out, wondering if Daryl is back to the group by then.

Xxxx

He's mad. He's stomping through the leaves and he's shot three squirrels down so far just for the hell of it and they're hanging around his neck like a necklace. They're nearly to the highway, they can see the roadside from where they are and Daryl can tell that Glen is anxious to get up there and let Lori know what happened but he honestly couldn't give less of a shit.

"What's that?" Glen says suddenly and turns to look back into the forest when a huge, brown horse comes charging out, the woman riding it looks at them but doesn't stop, continuing up to the road and yelling out, "Lori!?"

Daryl jogs up to the road just as Lori appears in front of the girl's horse.

"Lori Grimes? There's been an accident, Carl's been shot, you gotta come with me." She says and Lori says nothing, just takes off her backpack and looks like she's about to get on the horse.

"Wait! Wait! We don't know this girl! You can't get on that horse!" Daryl shouts at her. He finds himself looking towards Glen for support but he looks like he's gone braindead over the sight of the pretty brunette riding the horse. Daryl rolls his eyes and turns his attention back to the girl but Lori is already getting on the horse.

"It's a farm just a few miles down the road you'll see the mailbox, I've got to go." She turns and with a little yell the horse begins running again, down into the forest, and away.

Daryl snorts and looks back at the group, Andrea looks shocked to say the least. Carol looks like she's about to burst into tears and Sophia already has.

"Oh god!" Carol wails and Andrea grabs onto her shoulder, "Don't worry, Carol. Your little girl is ok and Lori's little boy is going to be just fine. We just need to have hope and pray that-"

"Ain't no use hopin' and prayin'," Daryl says, fixing Andrea with a glare and he knows he sounds snide and too harsh but he can't stop himself, "Only way to really make it better is to DO somethin' about it and Lottie's already out there doin' somethin'. That's the only reason Sophia's alive and if Carl makes it, it's gonna be because of her. I don't know about you, but I'm tired of sittin' around here hopin'. I'm goin down to that farm."

He storms off to his bike, leaving Carol shocked and clutching onto Sophia. He punches an SUV as he walks past it, kicks at a Honda as he comes near it and when he gets to his bike he feels like knocking it over.

"Why the hell she gotta go runnin' off like that!" he growls, grabbing at the sides of his head, trying to understand.

"She's a nurse. She likes helping people, she's used to it." He whips around to find Carol standing there, her eyes red from crying.

"You're worried about her, aren't you?" Carol asks gently and Daryl looks away.

"She ripped her damn stitches out, bein' stupid and runnin' ahead." He mumbles and Carol smiles at him.

"Then she's going to need her first aid kit to get herself patched up again, isn't she?" Daryl eyes her , grasping the idea. "You better go take it to her, and her clothes while you're at it, she'd really appreciate that." Daryl smirks finally and begins walking over to the truck that Lottie had set herself up in.

"Don't forget what I said, Daryl, that girl thinks you're smart and sweet and, in her words-not mine, 'rad', so you go get her." Daryl snorts at this but grabs her things and gets them secured onto his bike, riding down the road and keeping his eyes peeled for the mailbox.

Xxxxxxxxxx

"I hate to say this but he's lookin' pale. We're going to need more blood." Lottie just nods and gets back up from her chair, going to sit in the small wooden one beside the bed instead to give her blood to the boy.

"Do you even weigh enough to give blood? You ought to be 110 at least… I don't want you dyin' on me…" he adds and it seems like it could be a joke but his expression is grave.

"I weighed about 115 before the world fell apart. I've got no idea how much I weigh now but I know I've lost some." She's lying again. She was 110 at the most before the world fell apart and since it did she knows she's lot a lot, she can't even remember the last time she ate anything, or the last time she wanted to.

"It's fine though, I'll give all he needs, I don't care." She watches the blood drip out of her for another ten minutes or so before she can be unhooked and then she wobbles unsteadily to the front porch where Rick is. Hershel's daughter comes up on one of their horses at that moment, with Lori on the back of it and she runs to Rick who takes her inside to see Carl immediately. She stays outside, watching the tree line until she hears the loud hum of a motorcycle, she turns to see Daryl riding a bike up the path to the house, she smiles and runs down the front steps to meet him and that's about when the world starts spinning and turning black at some parts for her. She's on the ground before she's even half way to where he's standing and she hears the door to the house open, the bike shut off, and Daryl saying "Ah shit!" all at the same time.

X

She's aware that someone is carrying her up the steps to the house and she's aware that the sun is in her face. Whoever is carrying her has large muscled, arms and once he puts her down on the chair on the porch she recognizes the arms belong to Daryl.

"You need a shower." She murmurs, grinning at him without opening her eyes. She hears him snort and then she does open her eyes. Rick, Hershel and Lori are all outside on the porch now, staring at her.

"We can't keep taking blood from her, Rick, it's insane, it's too much. If you split it evenly between the two of you it will be better." She hears Hershel telling them.

"Nonsense. There's no point in both Rick and me being stuck to a chair, bleeding out. There's no point in two people being weakened instead of just one. Rick is the leader of their group and he's more important, he needs to be healthy to lead well." Hershel is frowning but Rick looks grateful and amazed. Daryl is frowning too though.

"Blood isn't that big of a deal anyways, I used to donate all the time. I'd even give my heart up for that little boy if he needed it, ok? I'll be fine." She closes her eyes again after that and leans back in the chair. Daryl stares at her.

She waits until she hears the others go back inside to open her eyes again and when she does Daryl is still staring at her.

"Thought maybe you passed out." He mutters gruffly and she grins, immediately reaching out for his hand. He doesn't stop her.

Her smooth, pale, tiny hands paw gently at his tan, rough ones that are big enough to cover hers entirely.

"Man hands." She jokes in a boyish voice and he snorts again.

"I uh, I brought your first aid kit, and all your stuff. Thought you could use it when your stitches came out." He says and she looks at him, surprised.

"That's really sweet of you." Is all she can think to say and she can feel her cheeks turning pinkish, she reaches out with her other hand to hold both of his at the same time when the screen door opens again and he all but shoves her away from him.

It's Lori, holding a glass of orange juice. "Hershel said you need to keep your strength up and keep hydrated if you're gonna keep giving Carl blood…Thank you, by the way."

Lottie just nods at her and takes the glass, whispering a little "Thank you." As Lori walks back inside.

"What's the matter? Are you afraid to be seen holding hands with me?" Lottie asks and she means to sound amused but her voice gives away how hurt she feels immediately. Daryl looks taken aback.

"No, I mean. Why would I? Well. Why you wanna hold my hand anyways?" He narrows his eyes at her and sneers in her general direction as she sips her orange juice.

"This juice is amazing!" is all she says and reply and he lifts an eyebrow at her.

"It's just really good juice, I haven't had juice in like forever. You know? Also, I'm pretty sure I like you, so if you don't mind, I'd like to hold your hand."

She adds, almost as an afterthought and reaches out for his hand again.

He shakes his head at her but smiles and takes his cross bow of his lap, putting it on the ground leaning against his chair instead, and stands, scoops her up out of her chair, sparing her a "Careful" about her orange juice and then plops back down with her in his lap.

She lets out a loud giggle that makes him snicker and return and she puts her hand on the back of his neck instead and she asks him if the others will be there before dark.


	9. Chapter 9

Wow! I'm pleased with the reviews and since the ever so darling "pyschovampgurl" has reviewed each chapter with things I feel that many of you amazing readers might be a little curious about I thought I'd reply on here, if you don't care then feel free to scroll right on past.

CH 1. Well of course he doesn't apologize, he's Daryl Dixon. Not to mention he has more important things to wrap his brain around at the moment, apologizing is boring-pointless!

CH 2. Oh yeah, her sudden touchy-feely-ness seems to have bothered a lot of people but she was taking a shot in the dark. Those people might have been fake and she could have walked with them for hours before realizing it. It would have been just as easy for her to have touched Rick or Sophia but she touched Daryl and got attached to him.

CH 3. The jacket is a mystery! I was originally going to add what musical it is a jacket of but then I decided that fans can turn it into whatever they want! Just know that it's big, it's black, and it's from a musical!

CH 4. She is a paranoid schizophrenic. She sees and hears things that are not there and they're so real to her that she can't tell them apart from reality. The only way she has come across to prove that they are real is to touch them. How weird would it seemed if she went around pawing at everyone? She can't bring herself to do it.

CH 5. Of course Glen watched .

CH 6. She doesn't care that they're mad at her for leaving because she feels they have no right to be! To her, joining their group doesn't automatically make her their child or something, she does what she wants, and she doesn't really value her own life (at the moment), so she doesn't care if she dies and she doesn't think they should care either.

CH 7. She has not exactly imagined killing 300 walkers. I'd say that many of the walkers she has encountered have been hallucinations but she finds out they're fake as soon as she takes a swing or shot at them, so she wouldn't count them for killings.

CH 8. She's quite small, I'm sure Daryl doesn't really mind her being on his lap.

"I went straight into the kitchen," he's finishing his story and Lottie is staring straight up at him while he looks out at the field, she's already smiling. "I made myself a sandwich. My ass still itched for days though." Lottie can't help it, she bursts out laughing. Its awkward, way too loud and way too long in the otherwise quiet of the night, but Daryl looks down and he can't help but laugh back at her.

"So you've been this brutal since you were nine? Is that what you're trying to tell me?" She asks and he wrinkles his nose at her. She tells herself that she doesn't want to kiss it.

"Brutal? I mean I was hopin you'd think I'm a bad ass but brutal, I'm not even sure what that's s'posed to mean. Where do ya get your words from?" He's teasing her and she likes it, likes the fact that he's being open enough to tease her, he's smiling.

"I get my words from the dictionary, unlike SOME people using words like 'ain't' and 'weren't' and 'S'POSED'." She adds her best imitation of Daryl's country twang to the words and he's laughing outright with her.

She thinks it's the most beautiful fucking laugh she's ever heard. She tells him that and he looks at her, bewildered, but doesn't have a chance to say anything before Hershel comes out.

"His blood pressure is dropping again."

She bounces out of Daryl's lap and gets to the door before Daryl has even registered she's no longer on him, peering up at him and pawing at his hair. He misses it.

"I'll be back soon, ok, they just need some more blood." She gives a small smile but he can't help but notice that it's weak, forced. He frowns at her but nods.

The room is getting cramped with Hershel, Lori, Rick, and Lottie in there so Lori and Rick exit together, waiting in the next room over while she bleeds for their son. Hershel remains in the room for a few minutes but then leaves to talk to Rick.

A moment later the door to the room reopens and a young, blonde, girl walks in.

"Hi, I'm Hershel's daughter, Marie." She says sweetly and Lottie forgets herself, doesn't think about it, "Oh hi, I'm Lottie. Nice to meet you. It's a beautiful farm."

Xxxxxx

On the other side of the door they can hear her talking. Hershel glances back and then looks towards Rick and Lori who are looking worriedly between him and the door.

"Maybe she's talking to Carl?" Lori asks Rick and Rick nods. "She's a caregiver, the nurses used to talk to you when you were in the coma." Lori adds and Rick smiles.

"Would one of you like to take her a sandwich?" Hershel asks, suddenly. "Girl needs to eat. Can't hardly tell with that big jacket on, but she looks small, she shouldn't have donated even half as much as she already has. It would be good to get some food in her."

Lori and Rick turn to look at each other and then Lori smiles. "I'll make it for her, but I'll send Daryl in to take it to her, she's more comfortable with him than anyone else, god knows why." She laughs wryly and Rick smiles, peering out the screen door at Daryl, sitting on the porch.

Lori comes out a little while later and asks Daryl if he'll take the sandwich in to Lottie and he gives her a look but nods. When he gets to the door he hears her laughing.

"There someone in there?" He asks, trying to pretend that he doesn't feel jealous of whoever is making her laugh like that.

Lori and Rick exchange glances before shaking their heads. "We think maybe she's talking to Carl." Lori adds quietly. Daryl frowns but opens the door and steps inside.

Lottie is very animatedly talking to…absolutely no one. Her gaze is fixed to her right, angled upward as though someone is standing beside her chair, she's using her right hand to gesture a little since her left one is attached to the IV cord, and she's grinning widely, he freezes in the door way.

"No, California is great! Just hotter than-" She's noticed him. "Oh, hey." She say easily, smiling at him, and then she turns back to where she'd just been looking and her face immediately falls, she visibly gulps and her face is bearing a look of pure horror, her eyebrows are lowered and her mouth falls open slightly, she's shaking her head gently in disbelief.

"Daryl, I-I… what are you doing in here?" She asks, her eyes not moving from the empty spot by her side as she speaks.

He gently shuts the door behind him and walks over to her, careful not to stand in the spot she's still gazing at, but close. She instantly reaches out and paws at his arm, while still staring at the spot. She only touches him once then sighs out in relief but says nothing, still doesn't look at him.

"Who you talkin to in here?" He asks, almost gently and she looks up at him with a wry smile and licks her lips before shaking her head.

"No one. I just. I'm feeling a little crazy I guess with all the blood I lost." She chokes out a forced laugh and he stares at her. He doesn't think he's ever been so confused by a girl in his life. He holds out the plate with the sandwich on it and she takes it and stares.

"Why don't you eat it? I know you're hungry, mister. I don't really feel hungry anyways." She says simply and he stares at her some more before shaking his head.

"Hershel said you gotta keep your strength up. You needa eat."

"Eat it for me. I'll feel better if I know that you've eaten and you're ok." She smiles at him and he rolls his eyes, frowning.

"Will you sit with me?" She whispers, staring at the floor, itching at the spot on her left arm where the IV is going in.

He sits on the edge of the bed, glances at Carl and frowns.

"Why you doin' this? Why didn't you say somethin about it when I got here? Hershel had to tell me." He mutters and she looks up at him, smiling a little, pleased that he's not dwelling on her hallucination.

"His life is important, he matters to people. I don't matter to anyone. I don't know that I ever have.." her voice is quiet, sad, "If I have to give my life up for him then it will be worth it, I don't mind losing blood for him, I wouldn't mind dying for him."

Daryl is staring at her and he can't help but feel irritated.

He storms out of the room, slamming the door open and not bothering to close it, angrily marching to his motorcycle parked on the dirt path.


	10. Chapter 10

Thanks for reading! Please review with constructive criticism, or anything you like!

Xxx

The RV pulls up the dirt road, closely followed by the gas efficient little car that Glenn is driving, T Dog, Carol and Sophia are in it with him.

Daryl stares from his place by his motorcycle, cigarette hanging out of his mouth, quickly burning down to the filter.

"Hey, what's going on? How's Carl?" Its far past dark by now and Daryl's eyes strain to see Dale as he walks toward him.

"Dyin' by the looks of it. Shane and the guy that shot Carl went to some school or somethin' to try to get more medical supplies but they been gone way too long by now."

"Where's Lottie?" Carol asks as she and Sophia get out of the car.

Daryl snorts and walks around his bike for no reason other than to try to get his anger out. "She's in there bleedin' herself dry for that fuckin' kid, I don't get it."

Andrea walks up behind Glenn and fixes Daryl with an apathetic look, "If he's dying then she probably shouldn't bother. Do you think he's even going to make it?" Daryl glares at her.

"You got that same damn look on your face as all the other people here, like it don't matter. What's wrong with you people? Lottie might be bein' stupid but at least she cares." He says in disgust before stalking off with his crossbow, down the path behind the RV.

Carol asks Dale if he'll keep an eye on Sophia before going after him.

"You're worried." She says simply as he lights another cigarette. Lottie will probably be pissed when she realizes there's only three left in her pack. He feels a little guilty and then hates himself for feeling that way.

"So?" he snarls indignantly.

"You care about her. You should tell her. It might seem fast and all but things are different than when they were before the world changed." He snorts and she frowns but continues, "Think about it, she's a tiny little thing, walkin around alone out in the woods, when do you think she last felt like someone cared about her?"

He frowns. He hadn't considered that. In the back of his head Merle's voice is yelling at him about how "caring" is for pussies and he should just hit it and quit it. He snorts and looks away, taking a drag off his cigarete.

"I DON'T care. She don't matter to me. I'm just lookin out for me, not anyone else. Don't matter to me if she bleeds herself to death for a dumb kid." He grumbles and Carol shakes her head at him, she looks like she's about to cry.

"You're tellin me that you don't care if I go in there right now and tell her what you just said?"

Daryl's head whips back to Carol and he's frowning, "Shit, man, what you gotta be like that?" Carol laughs and Daryl smirks a little, stomping out his cigarette.

"I just don't get it. She's funny and she's damn beautiful and she's a little fuckin weird but she could have any guy here. So why's she hangin around me?" he mumbles out, his voice rough and Carol shakes her head at him again, reaching out to put her hand on his shoulder.

"She likes you. We've barely met her and I think everyone knows that but you." Daryl stares at her and she walks away, up to the front door of the house, Daryl hangs by the RV and he sees Lottie come out just as Carol gets to the door. She looks extremely pale and she's taken her jacket off, he's shocked by how tiny she looks without it.

He stalks up to where she and Carol are talking on the porch, Lottie is clutching the wall for support.

"-I really do its just so fast and I'm not sure if he-" Lottie stops talking as he comes up and her eyes flash between him and Carol, she looks worried. Carol smiles knowingly at Daryl and nods her head at him.

"I'm gonna go inside and meet everyone, leave you two out here for a bit." She winks at Daryl and Daryl quickly looks away.

Lottie grabs onto him and he helps her to the chairs on the porch and sits her down.

"I'm startin to wish I'd forced that sandwich down your throat you look like I could snap you in half."

Lottie giggles and looks down, "Please, I'm not half as thin or pretty as any of these other girls. I feel like shit when I look at them; all sweet hearted and caring and shit. Well, Hershel's daughters at least, not so much Lori or uh, that blonde one."

Daryl smirks at her, "Andrea, yeah, she lost her sister, hasn't been the same since. But uh-you're a lot prettier than any of them, oughta know that. I bet guys were crawling all over you before they all died." She giggles again and he looks at her, sort of amazed that she thinks he's funny.

"Guys all over me? No. Never. I lived in… I lived in California and I swear every girl there was the stereotypical beauty, all sandy blonde, blue eyed, tanned, thin, toned. I can't say that I find one body type particularly hotter over another but I know that other people do. My most successful relationship lasted about three and a half years and it was…" She stops here like she's caught herself before doing something wrong and she looks at Daryl sadly, "It was bad." She ends shortly and he stares at her for a long while before asking bluntly; "He hit you?"

She laughs at his bluntness and he raises his eyebrows at her, she asks quietly, "If I'm going to let you in on some secrets, can I sit in your laugh again? I'll tell you how I got my funny little accent and everything." He smirks at her.

"Like hell you're sittin' in my lap. You're not even allowed to touch me anymore."

She pouts. "Why not?"

"Because I ain't bartering with you, either you're gonna tell me stuff or you're not, I'm not gonna let you bribe me or somethin'. Besides consider it payback for laughin about my itchy ass."

She giggles loudly at that and then stands up, she sways and he's scared for a second that she's going to faint and he puts his crossbow down, ready to stand and catch her, instead she takes the opportunity to plant herself in his lap.

"Do you mind?" she asks, mock politely, and then grins up at him brightly and he scoffs at her, poking at her hip bones.

"You need to get some meat on you, did you eat that sandwich?"

"No, I didn't like it, and I'm pretty sure I'm the correct weight for a little Cali girl, thank you very much."

He smirks down at her, wanting to run his hand through her blonde bangs. He's about to and then he sees his hand, covered in dirt and blood. He pulls it back from her awkwardly and lets it hang over the side of the chair.

"If you're from California why you talk like that? I thought you were from England or somethin."

"My grandmother is from England, I stayed with her a lot as a child and growing up and her accent rubbed off on me."

He makes a little hmm and looks up at the lights of the house and then she tugs on his little goatee.

"What the hell you doin'?" he grumbles at her.

"I'm not really sure. I'm sorry. I just. Like to touch?" she says softly, biting her lip and looking apologetic.

"Don't mind." He mumbles and then adds, "So that boy you were with… he hit you?"

She sighs but smiles. "You're straight to the point, you know? You don't dance around shit. I like it."

"You cuss a lot. Don't mind it." He fires back and she giggles again, letting her eyes close as she starts talking. "He didn't really hit me, that was more my daddy's thing," Daryl tries not to curl his hands into fists at that. Anyone who hits a girl is a fucking bastard. Daryl had hated it when Merle pushed his girlfriends around, even if he hadn't said anything.

"He did….other stuff to me." She adds and Daryl is shocked at that. Other things. "Bad things." She adds on and lets out a little sigh.

"I don't like to remember it. I choose not to. It's just something that happened."

"Ain't just 'somethin' that happened', if you're talkin about what I think you are then I want to find that bastard and crack him in the face. Maybe shoot him a few times with my crossbow."

She laughs and he peers down at her, confused.

"Well if you shoot him with an arrow he might think you like him. I thought that was your way of saying that?"

He blushes and looks away but her hands reach up and tie themselves together behind his neck and he looks back down.

"Look, I know maybe I'm being stupid so I'll just cut this out," she starts and Daryl frowns, swallows, looks away. Cut it out? She's done with him probably, done with his stupid stories of getting lost in the forest when he was little, done with letting it slide that he'd shot her in the leg, "Daryl…I have to…well I think I-"

The front door suddenly slams open and Lottie's words get stuck in her throat, she sits up immediately, its Rick.

"Hershel says he can't wait any longer, they need to start doing surgery now, he says he could use you there, will you come? Please?" Rick's pleading with her and she nods, getting up and nearly falling over again.

"Shit." She whispers out and Daryl is on his feet in an instant, grabbing her shoulders.

"Hey, you don't gotta help them, you're already bleedin' yourself dry, you can't do everything." He says and she shakes her head.

"I have to do everything I can, and I will. He's going to need more blood too, so you know, just in case." She's suddenly on her tip toes, craning her neck and tilting her head upwards and she kisses him on the lips, softly but firmly and his eyes flutter shut involuntarily, and then she's gone.

She's already inside the house when his eyes flutter back open and he puts his hand up to feel his lips like he can still feel hers there and then he plops down into the chair again grumbling, "Shit."

Carol comes out of the door after that and she's grinning brightly at him, "I didn't mean to watch but I saw that whole thing, Daryl, I'm so excited!" She's wiggling around a little bit and he bows his head down a little bit.

"Can't catch a break, man, it's like a damn soap opera around here."

"What happens in the next episode?" Carol asks cutely and he looks up at her shaking his head.

"I guess I tell her she's gotta be mine." He says, looking to Carol for confirmation and she shakes her head at him as a truck pulls up in front of the house.

"You don't tell a girl she's yours. You ask her." She says simply and then sits down across from him, "So really you have to figure out how you're gonna do it."

He closes his eyes because shit, now Carol is giving him advice and he's digging some chick he just met and Merle would probably be giving him so much shit right now and how did he get himself in this mess anyways?

Rick comes storming out of the house, Hershel on his heels and they meet Shane as he gets out of the truck. There's no one else with him.

Daryl stands and watches. Hershel grabs the supplies and takes them inside, yelling "No one tell Patricia, not til after, I need her!" and his girls follow him inside.

Shane relays what happened at the school to Rick and Daryl narrows his eyes. Shane doesn't sit right with him, and his story doesn't make any sense. He snorts and sits back down. Carol is watching Shane and Rick wide eyed.

"Sounds like a bunch of bull shit to me. Somethin else happened there, Shane's a damn liar." Daryl says, not meeting Carol's eyes and she looks back at him, nodding a little and looking out into the trees.

Lottie and Hershel come out some time later and Hershel tells Rick that Carl seems to be stabilized.

Lottie looks even paler than before, like she's going to be sick and Daryl wants to go to her but he stops himself. Carol frowns at him.

"Go to her, you know you want to." She prompts but he shakes his head.

"Don't want everyone starin' at us."

Hershel, Rick and Lori go back inside and tell Otis's wife that he died. She can be heard sobbing. Lottie comes over to where Daryl and Carol are sitting and she smiles at Carol, "I'm glad I met you, Carol. I like you." She says with a smile, and then turns to look at Daryl. "I'm so tired." She says softly and reaches out a hand, he takes it and brings her into his lap, careful not to move the gauze taped to her left arm where some blood can be seen peeking through.

She curls up on him and Carol smiles and makes a little "Awww" winning her a well meant frown from Daryl but Lottie doesn't notice anything but the way Daryl has interlaced his fingers with hers before she falls asleep.


	11. Chapter 11

The next day Carl is doing a lot better, no fever, better blood pressure, he's looking like he's definitely going to pull through. Lottie on the other hand still looks pale and sickly but she's bouncing around like she's fine, never far from Daryl or Carol's sides.

They build a little memorial for Otis out of rocks and they all go, despite the fact that practically none of their group even knew Otis. Daryl tells Lottie what he thinks about Shane's story and Lottie agrees. There's something wrong with him, it's clear in the way he twitches, evades eye contact, all the usual signs of a pathological liar.

Shane lies more at the memorial, it's obvious. No one who didn't know for certain that they were about to die would have said the things Otis "said". Lottie tells Daryl this and he smirks at her.

"You're really good at that readin' people thing, aren't you, shorty?" he whispers to her and she pinches his side as discreetly as possible, making him jump a little.

Later on they're looking at a map Maggie's dug up, trying to scout the area for possible other houses they could stay in. Hershel has offered to let them live on his land while Carl is healing, and they're all grateful. Lottie thinks it's beautiful.

"I've always kind of wanted to live on a farm." She tells Daryl as they walk over to where Rick and the other men are standing, beginning to draw out a plan. He scoffs at her.

"It's smelly, lot of work. You'd hate it." She looks up at him, they're holding hands and it's become completely natural for them, Daryl doesn't even seem to notice when she fits her little hand into his anymore.

"You're smelly and a lot of work, I don't hate you." She teases and he gives her a dirty look but she just sticks her tongue out at him.

They get to the truck and Rick is talking about dividing them into groups.

"Can I go with Daryl?" She asks immediately but quietly. Hershel stares her down.

"Definitely not. You aren't going at all, you gave nearly 4 units of blood, and you wouldn't be hiking for five minutes before passing out. Rick, you should really stay with your boy for right now as well, he's awake more and I think it's important for him to see you. Shane, you need to stay off your hurt ankle or you'll make it worse, you'll be limping for months."

"Guess it's just me then." Daryl says, fixing his stare on the map." Lottie feels like he doesn't care if she stays or goes and she pulls her hand out of his. He doesn't even seem to notice that.

"I'll head back up to the creek, start going from there." Daryl adds and Shane puts in that they should start training with guns.

"I'd prefer you don't have your guns out on my property." Hershel says, he seems annoyed.

"With due respect, we're going to want guns if any of those things come wanderin in here."

Rick shakes his head. "We're guests on Hershel's property. We need to abide by his rules. We'll respect you." He says finally, turning to Hershel. He pulls out his gun and lays it on the top of the map, Shane looks irritated but he does the same.

"First things first we'll set up camp, start lookin for possible places nearby that might be decent living quarters." Rick says simply.

Daryl grunts in agreement and Lottie feels like she's being left behind, abandoned by him. She looks away.

Shane suggests they do gun training off Hershel's farm somewhere, get people some practice. Andrea likes the idea, is overly eager to learn to use a gun better. Lottie frowns. It just sounds like wasting bullets to her.

One of Hershel's daughters, Maggie, suggests going to town for more supplies, they need antibiotics, gauze, extra medical equipment. She suggests going to the pharmacy nearby.

"I'll go with you." Lottie says quickly and when Hershel shoots her a look she says, "I'll be fine. I can take care of myself and if we go in a car I'm pretty sure I won't pass out."

Rick nods at her and Daryl is glaring at her, she can feel it but doesn't look in his direction.

"That guy over there in the baseball cap is Glenn, he's kind of our 'go to town' expert. You should ask him along just to be cautious." Rick adds.

Maggie looks to her father and he nods so she wanders over to Glenn. Lottie follows quickly before Daryl can say or do anything to stop her.

It turns out they're taking horses. She frowns but doesn't really mind and she trails around Dale for a little while after Maggie goes to saddle the horses up, he's concerned about their water supply and Lottie is interested to say the least.

She overhears Daryl shouting something at Rick, he's pissed. She doesn't go after him. He hadn't gone after her.

She tries to pretend she doesn't care. She follows Dale and T Dog to the well.

Xxxx

"We need to get it out alive?" Lottie asks, worried. They're all crowded around the well where a walker seems to be stuck inside. The water is probably already infected, she thinks. It hardly matters.

"We need live bait." Andrea says smugly and looks to Glenn. Lottie frowns again, wishing Daryl was there, but telling herself that he didn't matter, all morning he had been treating her like she didn't matter. She huffed. It had only been one night. What had changed that made him suddenly so careless towards her? Carol said he always acted that way, a lone wolf. She didn't like that. If he wanted to be alone from everyone-including her-then he should just tell her so she could get the fuck over him already.

"I'll go." She says quietly and Glenn looks at her. He shakes his head quickly and gulps, "I think Daryl would kill me."

"Daryl doesn't care." She snaps, quietly but with venom in her voice. "It doesn't matter, let me go."

Andrea and Shane shrug at each other and before she knows it she has a rope tied around her waist and she's wondering why the hell she has some sort of death wish.

"Oh, God, oh God, oh God." She's whispering to herself as she claws at the walls of the well, trying to forget that she had ever loved the movie "The Ring".

She's going down slowly, easily until she hears a loud CLANG.

She's dropping like a rock and she lets out a scream as she's barely inches above the zombie, her feet kicking as she tries to keep away from it, "oh god HELP ME, PLEASE! I Don't want to die like this! PLEASE!" she's screaming, begging as they try to pull her out.

She's pretty sure that she's going to die right then and there when she begins to get lifted out of the monster's range. She lets out a shuddering breath and manages to loop the noose around the zombie's neck as she's being eased up. She scrabbles out of the well as soon as her hands can reach the top and hyperventilating as soon as she's completely on land again.

She crawls to the grass on the side of the dirt and dry heaves until she finally coughs up some bile. She turns over and lies on her back staring at the sky.

"At least I got it on there." She manages to breathe out, still gasping for air and Dale chuckles and smiles down at her. She sighs and closes her eyes.

When they finally manage to pull the beast up, Lottie is sitting on the sideline, feeling too weak to help the others pull, it ends up splitting right down the middle, its lower half and entrails all falling into the well.

Lottie dry heaves more at that, choking out bile and nothing else. She still hasn't eaten. She feels dizzy.

Xxxxx

Lottie trails along a little behind Glenn and Maggie on her horse. She's trying to give them space, it's obvious Glenn likes her. Lottie smiles as she hears Glenn trying to impress her. Maggie seems interested but like she's trying to play it cool and Lottie grins at her attitude. When they get to the pharmacy Lottie brandishes her bat in front of her, trying to check for walkers before she looks around for anything in particular.

Lottie looks at Glenn's list while he's crouched down on the floor, her eyes widen when she sees he has a separate note with just "True Blue" written on it in swerving handwriting. She lets him grab it when he sees it and she stoops down to pick up an extra few pregnancy tests as well as some tampons before making her way over to the rows of prescription meds behind the pharmacy counter. She watches Maggie walk up to Glenn and question him about some condoms. Lottie snickers and goes back to searching for something that might help her.

"clo-clo-clo-clo," she breathes out as she scans the shelves for it, "Ah! Clozapine….good….Zyprexa, perfect… Prozac, Zoloft, oh thank god, I've hit a fucking gold mine…" she murmurs to herself, hoping Glenn and Maggie haven't heard her, not that they would know what the medications were for at all, but she can't run the risk of them maybe guessing.

She glances back to where they are and realizes they're making out, practically pulling each other's clothes off and she smirks, stuffing the pills into her bag and then quickly going around the counter, "I'm going to go take a look around the town, I'll be back in forty-five!" She says, startling them and she can hear Maggie giggling when she leaves the shop.

When she gets back Glenn and Maggie are acting awkwardly and she hears Maggie whisper to Glenn something about it being a one-time thing. Lottie frowns but pretends she didn't hear them and doesn't know what they did.

Her mind is wrapped around the pills, wrapped around the vodka she found in a bar, wrapped around Daryl. She means to talk to Carol once they get back. She ties her horse up to a tree and watches Maggie go back into her house. Lori comes up to Glenn and she listens closely, realizing it was Lori who needed the pregnancy test. Lottie rolls her eyes. Of course.

"This group is so bloody dramatic." She thinks to herself and the voice that is so regularly present in her mind responds with _Then leave, it hardly matters anyways. Not even Daryl wants you here._

She shrugs it off and considers taking one of the pills right then and there but decides to wait. She doesn't want to waste them.

She sees Sophia sitting outside, watching Dale work on the RV's engine, she smiles at Lottie, runs up and hugs her.

"Do you wanna play tag?" Sophia asks, her southern twang only emphasized by her little voice.

Lottie laughs and kisses Sophia's forehead before saying, "I would love to but I need to talk to your mama first, alright?" Sophia smiles and nods emphatically and Lottie makes her way up the steps of the RV to find Carol. She's sitting in the bedroom portion of the RV, sewing something and Lottie walks in and lies down in the bed, making a dramatic "HUFF" Carol laughs at her and Lottie smiles back.

"I feel like I'm going to pass out, It's ridiculous. How are you doing?" Carol tells her about cleaning up the RV and how she's about to try to do some of her and Sophia's laundry.

"How on earth have you people been showering?!" Lottie asks and the door to the RV creaks open but neither woman notices it, "I nearly got my feet eaten off by a walker we found in a well earlier and I feel like if I don't shower I might just become part of the dirt and no one will even notice." Carol laughs and Lottie laughs back before they realize Daryl is standing in the doorway to the bedroom. He's holding a beer bottle with a flower sticking out of the top of it.

Carol looks up at him curiously.

He tells her the story of the Cherokee rose and how he thought it was fitting for the tears Carol had cried over Sophia, and how the rose had bloomed for her to give her hope and then Sophia was found because she deserved it.

Lottie found herself crying and when she looked over Carol was carefully wiping tears off her own face. Lottie tried to pretend she wasn't crying at all but Daryl was staring at her and she knew he knew. "Sorry." She said quickly and brushed past him, quickly leaving the RV.

Carol shoos him away, hissing a "Go after her! Now would be the time!" And Daryl looks bewildered but nods and quickly exits the RV.

"Lottie!" he yells, "Where's that girl gone?" he asks Dale who's at the front of the RV.

Sophia is gently tugging at his pant leg and he looks down, "She said she can't play tag right now 'cause she's not feelin' good. She went round to where the horses are." Sophia points in the direction of the stables and Daryl nods, messing up Sophia's hair and giving her a short thanks before beginning off in that direction.

"Daryl!" He turns around to find Dale coming up to him quickly, "I've noticed the way you're lookin' at that girl, Lottie."

"Ah, shit, tell me I ain't gonna have to hear advice from every damn person in this group." Daryl groans, shouldering his crossbow.

Dale chuckles and puts a hand on Daryl's shoulder, "I don't think everyone but I'm just gonna tell you, I think she's something special. It takes a lot to do what she did for Sophia and then for Carl when she didn't even really know them, hell, I'm not sure that I would even do everything she did for them. She's something special, if you're going to go after her then just keep that in mind." Dale nods once and then walks away.

Xxxx

Lottie is sitting on the ground, just towards the end of the stables. She's still wiping tears from her eyes. She's not jealous that Daryl brought Carol a flower and not her, of course but she's kind of hurt that while he was out there he was thinking of Carol and not him. She sniffs loudly and huffs out a little laugh, well of course, why would he be thinking of her, honestly.

She draws in a deep breath and attempts to think, clawing open the new pack of cigarettes she had found on their trip into town. She lights one up.

Rick and Lori have been offered a room in the house to be near Carl but Lottie isn't sure where she's supposed to stay. She doesn't have a tent, usually when she was on her own she would climb up into a tree and sleep there. There aren't very many trees inside Hershel's property and she's kind of unsure of where to go.

_Leave. Leave them and go to the house, you know where it is, you know how to get there._

Lottie squeezes her eyes shut and then reopens them, clearly seeing her worst enemy and greatest friend standing in front of her, the two are the same. Lottie sighs and struggles to her feet, remembering not to put too much pressure on her still injured right leg.

"Can't you just leave me alone?" She whispers out. She knows this one is fake but no matter how hard she tries, Annie has never left her alone, never gone away.

Lottie doesn't notice both Rick and Daryl walking up the path towards the stables.

_Daryl DOESN'T LIKE YOU. _Annie laughs, it's a wicked sort of snicker and she rolls her eyes at Lottie, putting a hand on her slender waist.

_He probably just wants to fuck you. _Its venomously added and Lottie feels her blood boiling inside of her.

"Shut up, fucking shut up! It's not like that. I don't even care. It's not like I'm in love with him, I barely know him!" She hisses out and Annie snickers again.

_You're so pathetic! I can see right through you and you know it, I AM you. I know what's in your head and, no, you don't love him, not yet, but you definitely like him, you definitely want him to like you back. And you know what? As soon as he finds out about me, he'll hate you, They'll all hate you, they'll all want you gone. You might as well leave now, before they find out._

"SHUT UP! I SAID SHUT UP! LEAVE ME ALONE. THEY'RE NOT GOING TO FIND OUT SO JUST SHUT UP!"

_Think again._

"Lottie?" Daryl's voice. She turns around. He's pointing the crossbow at her and Rick is at his side, they're both staring at her like she's a threat and she knows there's no getting out of it this time.


	12. Chapter 12

Bear with me on this chapter! I know its not written the best, I'm running on absolutely no sleep.

Please review! Thanks for reading, you're all lovely!

3

Xxxxx

She's frozen. Her brain is moving as fast as it can, whirring insanely trying to piece things together. Lie. How? They saw. What did they see? What did they hear? What can you fake? Emotional breakdown?

"Lottie, are you alright?" It's Rick talking, Lottie can't even force herself to try to meet Daryl's eyes right now, she knows how he must be looking at her. Even Rick is looking at her like he's scared more than concerned.

"Oh God damn it." She whispers and shuts her eyes.

"You want to tell me uh, exactly who you're yelling at?" Rick asks, calmly, like he's trying to coax her into not jumping off a building.

"I-I…" She opens her eyes again and bites her lip, still avoiding looking at Daryl. She feels suddenly naked despite being fully clothed, her big jacket once again covering almost her entire body.

"Rick, I haven't been entirely honest with you, and I'm sorry." She frowns and looks down at the ground, she takes a deep breath in through her nose, she's trying to keep herself from crying.

"That's ok." Rick says, inching forward a little, "You can be honest now. It's alright."

She looks up at him and it's too late, there are fat tears rolling down her cheeks already, she rubs them away and looks back down. She shakes her head a little, "No, it's not. It's not… I'm sorry. I've been selfish. I should have said. I just. I couldn't… I couldn't help it. I'm. Rick, I'm… I have… I'm a paranoid. Schizophrenic. I see things and I hear things that aren't really there, and I can't tell the difference between what's real and what's not anymore. I. don't always know whether who I'm talking to is real or not, and I don't always know if what I'm seeing is actually there or not." She licks her lips and gasps out a little sob, using her jacket sleeve to rub at her wet face. She looks up and Rick's eyes are wide, his mouth is open slightly and he's staring at her, unsure. She frowns, narrows her eyes, suddenly everything is going fuzzy, dark at the edges of her field of vision she shakes her head and squints some more, finally making herself look at Daryl who is glaring at her maliciously, she cries out loud at that face, and barely manages to shake her head one more time and whimper out a, "Daryl, I'm so sorry." Before everything goes black.

Xxxxxxx

X

_You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy, when skies are gray._

X

"She SEES things, what the hell is that s'posed to mean? People? Buildings? Dogs? WHAT?" Daryl is growling out as he paces up and down the hallway in Hershel's house. Lottie was resting in the room upstairs.

"I DON'T KNOW, Daryl. I don't know any more than you do and until she wakes up there's no way to know. At least now we know who the hell she was talking to when she was donating blood for Carl…"

Daryl snorts, continuing to pace.

"Like that matters. What else is she seein'? Does she think there's thirty of us? Do we all look like fuckin demons or somethin to her?" Rick sits on one of Hershel's wooden chairs and rubs at his forehead.

"She definitely can't be takin' watch. We'll never know if she actually sees somethin' or not." Daryl adds, throwing his crossbow over his shoulder.

"We're going to need to talk to the group about this…" Rick says gently and Daryl shoots him a glare.

"You think she wants everyone to know she has a problem? She didn't even wanna tell you, OR me." Daryl snorts again and mutters something that sounds like "Typical" but Rick can't really be sure. He continues pacing until Hershel comes down the stairs.

"Well, she's definitely malnourished, and with the amount of blood she lost and her wearing that heavy jacket, I'm pretty sure she's also got heat stroke. She's going to have to sleep in here tonight and maybe be in bed all day tomorrow too. She needs to eat something, drink more water and juice. Keep her temperature down. Are you not feeding your people, Rick? That girl is nothing but bones. I shouldn't have let her donate even a third of what she did."

Rick frowns and Daryl shakes his head, "I knew it. Of course she's too damn small, she's like five feet in the first damn place, she didn't have enough blood in her to give!" He gives a frustrated groan and starts pacing again. Hershel turns to Rick.

"She should be ok after a few days, I think, she just needs to take it easy." Rick nods.

"Uh, Hershel, I know you're a vet and not a doctor but… do you maybe know anything about schizophrenia?"

Hershel frowns but sits down on a chair across from Rick and tells him and Daryl all he knows.

Xxx

She's about to scream but she clamps her hands over her mouth and her voice hitches in her throat anyways.

She peers around the dark room, eyes wide, she can hear footsteps coming towards wherever she is and she quickly rolls off the bed and onto the floor, scooting herself underneath it. She's scared. They're coming for her.

Whoever it is stops just outside her door and she listens while trying to decide whether or not she can crawl out the window and safely get to the ground. She's pretty sure she can.

"Lemme talk to her first. Might help, think she likes me or somethin'."

"You sure, Daryl? From what Hershel said it could just be that she thinks you're on her 'side' and the rest of us are out to get her. You can't be sure what she's thinking."

She rolls her eyes. Just because she's got issues doesn't mean she's completely fucking crazy.

"I don't know what she's thinkin. I don't know what's goin on. I'm sick of this soap opera shit, man. You know what? You can go talk to her, you can throw her out of the fucking camp! I don't care about it anymore, from now on I'm just looking out for me." The sound of boots stomping away. She gasps. Tries not to cry. Fails. Tears slide down her cheeks.

Annie was right. Of course she was right. Annie is always right. She sighs. She hears some shuffling at the door and she knows that Rick must be trying to determine how to go about this. She sighs and quietly crosses the room, slides open the window and jumps. She gasps as her feet make contact with the overhang of the porch and she tumbles onto her side, rolling down the rest of the way, she grasps onto the edge when she gets there, bending one arm backwards, she chokes down the yell that's in her throat and lets go, dropping to the ground about fifteen feet below just as Daryl comes out the front door. She's already panting and he's pointing his crossbow at her since she just fell from the fucking sky in front of him. She stares at him wide eyed, panting heavily and then races towards his motorcycle, where her things are tethered to the sides. He's shocked for a moment but then he races after her.

"LOTTIE!" He yells, and he's right on her heels, she grabs her back and pulls it on before strapping her other pack to her thigh, leaving her baseball bat tethered to the backpack but pulling her handgun out of her pouch, she starts running again, straight towards Daryl who's still running towards her and when she's less than a foot away she kicks at his right leg, and then swerves on her feet, maneuvering around him and kicking the back of his legs, making them buckle and he's on his knees, swearing but then scrabbling to get back up.

She's running fast though, even faster than she was running when she had found out Carl was shot and she had been faster than him then already. She's feeling light headed though and more than a little dizzy and she can't think clearly. She keeps running though, headed for the forest, headed for somewhere safer than here. She doesn't know why she ever thought that joining a group was a good idea. People have always outcasted her, people at the end of the world were no better, worse, even.

She chances a look behind her to see Daryl still running but far behind, she thinks she can see Rick just outside the house too but then she looks forward again. Keeps running. Keep running.


	13. Chapter 13

**Okay so I'm giving you guys both of their views, their thoughts in this one and while it is short, I just wanted to draw attention to how similar they are even if they seem different.**

**Both of them are struggling with deep issues. Both of them feel like no one is ever going to truly care about them but Daryl responds to that by trying not to care about anyone since they don't care about him, and she responds to it by caring about everyone more than she even cares about herself.**

**See what I'm getting at here?**

Xxxxx

Xx

She sleeps in a tree near the house they had originally been scoping out in the woods before Carl was shot. She barely actually sleeps at all; instead she chain smokes cigarettes and tries to pretend she doesn't hear walkers approaching from every direction.

She contemplates killing herself. She makes a pro and con list and thinks about it rationally.

She can't think of a single reason not to do it. She doesn't even think that she's afraid. A single shot to the head and she'll be done, it'll be over. No more hallucinations, no more pain, no more judgmental stares, no more-Daryl.

Oh god. "What am I doing out here? Why didn't I stay? Why didn't I beg him to forgive me and stay?"

_Because he thought you were a freak just like the rest of them, because no one cares about you but me._

She cries as quietly as she can until morning.

Xxx

He turns over. He stares at the fabric of the tent. He rolls onto his back. He stares at the ceiling of the tent. He groans and rubs a hand over his face.

_What you doin' little brother? You losin' sleep over a girl? You're whipped and you aren't even gettin any, look at that!_

Merle's voice is clear in Daryl's head and he turns over again, pulling his blankets up.

"I ain't whipped," he mumbles, "She can take care of herself, I ain't worried."

_If you're not worried than what you doin awake? You miss her?_

Daryl doesn't reply to that one, just shuts his eyes and tries to sleep because yes, yes he does. But he doesn't know why and he doesn't want to miss her, he wants to hate her for lying and hate her for being pointless, and hate her for acting like she gave a shit about him and then running away from him as soon as he found out all the fucking secrets she was keeping.

_Ain't no one gonna give a shit about you but me, little brother._

He crawls out of his tent and tells TDog that he'll take over watch, he can't sleep anyways.


	14. Chapter 14

Speedie22- Thank you so much for your reviews, thanks for reading!

Codeblueeyes987 – Yeah, its more that he's confused and he doesn't want to care about her because he's still not sure she cares about him. He doesn't want to so he's trying to force himself not to.

Psychovampgurl- I appreciate all your reviews, you're the greatest! And yeah, the shittiest part is that she doesn't understand it. She thinks she can control it and she thinks she's not crazy and it will go away but it just doesn't work like that, her brain just doesn't work properly.

Thanks for reading and thanks for all of your lovely reviews!

Xxx

X

She's wandering towards the sounds of a stream in hopes of finding water. She doesn't know when she'll next find a stream as she ventures out towards the highway, she's too deep in the forest to know if she'll come across the one she had found Sophia in. She sighs and looks towards the sounds of the stream.

_You know it's for the best, don't worry about it, dear. You know you're better off alone, and you know that there IS a safe place waiting for you, all you have to do is find it._

"And YOU KNOW that I have the pills to make you go away any second! So shut up!" Lottie hisses at the tall brunette whom doesn't actually exist.

_If you were going to do that you would have done it back when it would have helped. Now it doesn't even matter. Now you want me here because you'll be alone otherwise. Isn't that the same reason you've never taken your pills? You'll be alone otherwise?_

"Stop it. Stop it get out of my head, get out." Lottie murmurs, stopping to sit by a tree and closing her eyes. When she reopens them Annie is gone.

"Fuck me." She mumbles and staggers back up to her feet, checking on her stitches which finally seem to be healing. She can hear the stream a lot better now and she starts pushing through some brush to get to where she can see it is on just the other side. She stops when she hears movement.

She can hear groaning and she sees narrowed eyes trained on the bush she's pushing through. She stops pushing, pulls back, topples over and lands on the ground quietly.

"Oh shit, oh god. Is that really him? Is that him? What is he doing here? Searching for houses. Rick's plan, they're continuing with it like before I left, that's what he's doing." She thinks quickly and she's near hyperventilating as she watches him from the very bottom of the brush.

He's bleeding. She frowns. He has a fucking arrow sticking out of his side. She closes her eyes and gives out the sigh of the long suffering. She should go help him, she wants to go help him.

_He'd probably shoot you as soon as he saw you. And I don't think he'd get your leg this time._

Lottie whips her head around to see Annie crouching in the bush along with her, peeking out at Daryl. Lottie frowns again.

"Can't you just go away? I'm trying to figure out what the fuck to do here." She whispers and Annie smirks but the next time Lottie looks back, she's gone.

He's starting to climb up the hill, she remembers this steep piece of shit, she'd nearly broken her arm trying to crawl down it. Why doesn't he find another way? Go around or something? She's worried now, he's maybe halfway and panting heavily, he's still bleeding and she thinks she can hear him talking to himself.

SNAP

Suddenly the vine he was clutching onto breaks and he's scrabbling to hold onto something, anything, but he can't and he's crashing down the side of the hill again, She has to clamp a hand over her mouth to keep her from crying out to him, scared and worried at the sight of his body lying limp on the bank of the stream.

She waits a while, wishing he would get up, not sure if he's even really there and if he is really there if he's going to try to kill her or something.

"No, no, no, no, he would never try to kill you, the group was just confused, they just didn't understand. Daryl will understand, you can talk to him and make him understand."

She squeezes her eyes shut tight, feeling more confused than ever at that thought and stays where she is. It isn't much later that she hears him talking again.

"Shitty day, brah." She can make out and she's confused. She knows very little about Daryl's brother, Merle, but what she does know is that he's not with the group and most likely dead. Daryl doesn't say a lot else but it's obvious he's listening to someone who isn't there. She frowns. He's hallucinating. He's delirious.

She muffles a gasp when a zombie comes stumbling out of the woods and goes straight for Daryl. "Ok, time to stop being a coward." She tells herself firmly and hurries out of the brush, brandishing her baseball bat in front of her just as Daryl seems to wake up, he starts letting out little gasps and kicks the walker in the face from his spot on the ground and Lottie charges forward, cracking it over the head with her bat.

She continues swinging at it once it's on the ground, cracking it's skull open and splattering blood all over both of them, when she looks back at Daryl he's pulled the arrow out of his side and is pulling it back into his crossbow, aiming directly at her. Her eyes widen and she gives a little gasp but then the arrow goes whizzing by her head, landing itself between the eyes of a walker approaching fast behind her. Daryl lies back in the dirt after that, he doesn't say anything to her.

She frowns but kneels beside him, pulling her backpack off and rooting through it for her first aid kit.

She pulls her knife out of her boot and cuts his shirt off him, revealing a wife beater underneath. She leaves that on and rolls it up. He hisses in pain and waves a hand at her.

"Get off me, woman." He mumbles out, eyes closed. She smirks.

"No. I love you." She says back, with more confidence than she feels. His eyes open and he's staring at her.

He doesn't say anything.

She cleans out his wounds and stitches them up, he groans makes irritated noises when she rolls him over and she's pleased with how pliable his half-conscious state makes him and she crouches over his face, waiting for his eyes to flicker open and then she kisses him, soft but deep and when she pulls away his eyes flutter open again and he stares at her lazily.

"Why you do that?" He grumbles, still staring at her as she smears antibiotic ointment over the stitches.

"Because I love you." She answers simply, not looking up at him.

"Nah, you don't. Don't even know me. Merle always told me that no one was gonna care about me but him, and I just gotta take care of me and mine, cause no one else is goin to." He's sitting up now, irritated.

"Do you believe everything your brother says?" she asks simply, packing her things away and crawling over to the water to fill up her bottle.

"No, Merle was a liar." She snickers a little and he stares at her, looking annoyed.

"Then why would you believe him about that?" She asks, helping him scoot backwards and lean against the side of the hill.

"Cause its true, that's why." He snaps, but its halfhearted and he's still panting. She hands him her water bottle and he gulps from it thirstily.

"It's not true. I care about you. I love you." She repeats and he peers at her from his narrowed eyes.

"How do I know I'm not just dreamin' again?" He asks, annoyed and she smiles because she knows the answer to that.

"If you can touch me, then I'm real." She says softly and he reaches out and paws at her arm.

Xxx

They're both panting heavily but they're nearly to the top. Daryl is grunting with the effort, trying to lever himself up higher with trees and vines while still clutching onto his hurting side. They're nearly there, maybe three more climbing, scrabbling, steps to the top when Daryl's hand tugs a vine that's not stable, he instantly goes backwards, his feet slipping on the loose dirt and she digs her right boot into the ground as best she can while hanging onto Daryl with her right hand, hanging onto a small tree branch with her other hand.

"Come on, come on, you can do it, just hold onto me and come back, I love you, I love you, I know you can." She's panting out and his face looks scared, tired, he uses her arm to pull himself back up and her body twists to accommodate him but her right foot is stuck, planted in the dirt. She can feel herself twisting and her leg resisting the force but she says nothing.

Daryl continues to use her to lever himself up until he's at the same level as her and by then she's got tears rolling down her cheeks. He eyes her but she just sniffles and says, "Knew you could, what a man." In a half joking sort of way and they continue to climb, her right leg being slid upwards with each step, nearly useless.

Xxx

It's still bright out when they get back to the camp, Daryl is leaning on her almost fully for support now and he's dragging his crossbow behind him with part of his torn up shirt. She thinks he might have a concussion but she's not really sure. Her right knee has been dislocated and she's been crying in pain since they made it up to the top of the hill. Both of them are filthy, limping, and bloody.

They're barely in the field when Lottie hears Andrea cry, "WALKERS!" she doesn't stop walking though, she doesn't think Daryl heard and she's barely even registered it herself.

The men are running across the field, straight at them and Lottie's suddenly aware that she's losing consciousness, she groans as things start going spotty and black.

"Is that Daryl? And…Lottie?" She can hear Glenn's voice and she strains to be able to see the world again, Rick's pointing a gun at Daryl.

"That's the third time you pointed that thing at my head, you gonna pull the trigger or what?" Daryl says hoarsely and the guys start laughing, Lottie smiles, but she's noticed Andrea on top of the RV.

"GET DOWN." She says suddenly and shoves Daryl to the grass. It goes black after that.


	15. Chapter 15

You're about to read the gayest chapter ever, yay! I tried to keep Daryl as in character as possible while abiding to the startlingly DIFFERENT FREAKING IDEAS OF HOW YOU GUYS WANT HIM TO ACT. LIKE WOW, YOU GUYS HAVE CONFUSING DEMANDS, I'M SO DONE.

So if he does seem completely ooc, I'll probably kill myself, that's how done I am you guys are crazy.

Thanks for reading 3

Xxxx

x

When she wakes up she can feel eyes on her. She's lying on her back. She can feel crisp sheets beneath her fingers and her boots are off. She's aware of another presence on the bed with her. She can hear talking. _Hershel's house._

She opens her eyes. She stares blearily at the ceiling for a moment before moving to rub at her eyes. Her left arm doesn't want to comply and it's hurting like a bitch from the shoulder down. She hisses and the talking stops.

"She's awake. Lottie? How are you feeling?" It's Rick's voice. She looks to her right and he's crouched down beside the bed, looking at her, she looks to her left to find Daryl lying in the bed with her, he's clutching onto his head and Hershel is prodding at his stitches. She frowns.

When she doesn't answer Rick looks at Hershel instead.

"How is he looking?" Rick asks and Hershel shoots him what Lottie can only describe as a dirty look.

"I had no idea we'd be going through antibiotics so quickly," Is all he says and Lottie rolls her eyes before fixing her gaze on Daryl. He's looking at Hershel now. "Do you have any idea what happened to my horse?"

Daryl seems annoyed, "You mean the one that almost killed me? If it's smart it left the country." He replies and Lottie giggles, making all eyes go on her, including Daryl's. She frowns and looks down at the sheets instead.

"We call that one Nellie, as in Nervous Nellie. I could have told you that if you'd bothered to ask." Hershel replies, cleaning off his hands in a basin full of water by the bed. Daryl lays his head back down on the bed but doesn't look at Lottie.

Hershel says something snide to Rick and Lottie closes her eyes again, annoyed. Rick leaves the room a moment later.

"Does he have a concussion? I didn't check." Lottie asks softly and Hershel looks even more irritated at her. She frowns.

"No, just a lot of scrapes and bruises. It's mostly just this darn hole in his side that's the problem. As for you, well you're luckier than a horseshoe, if you had been an inch or two taller that bullet would have been straight in your heart."

Hershel exits the room and Dale comes in a few moments after.

"Andrea…. Is really sorry. She knows she shouldn't have done what she did. Are you alright?" He asks her and Lottie sighs.

"I suppose so. My arm kind of feels like it's about to fall off but it's ok. I'll be fine. Tell Andrea it's ok, I don't blame her and that it was a good shot. I've never been so happy to be a damn hobbit." She says smiling up at the old man.

He chuckles at her and pets her head affectionately before leaving the room.

Lottie glances at Daryl and he's staring at her. She closes her eyes and pretends to sleep.

Xxxx

Later that night after she's done pretending to sleep she stares at the ceiling for a long time. Daryl hasn't said a word to her and she would rather not trade the silence for something less favorable now that he's thinking straight.

The door creaks open and she turns to see Carol, holding a tray, smiling at them.

Daryl awkwardly tucks the sheets up all the way to his neck like he doesn't want her to see his chest, or maybe the wound. Lottie's not sure which, she just attempts to sit herself up and smiles back at Carol. Daryl is turned on his unaffected side and awkwardly twists to look up at Carol.

"How you guys feelin'?" Carol asks, setting the tray on the nightstand by the bed.

"About as good as I look." Daryl mutters and Lottie smiles.

"He must be feeling pretty well then." She offers trying to hide her blush and failing, "Personally I feel like a tenderized piece of meat but I didn't have to get stitches so I guess I can't complain."

Daryl stares at her hard before looking back up at Carol who's giggling and shaking her head.

"Well, I brought you two some dinner, you both must be starvin."

Daryl peeks over at the tray but says nothing.

Carol frowns and then bends down to kiss his forehead.

Lottie is surprised and even a little jealous that Daryl doesn't try to shoo her away, even if Carol doesn't see him the way Lottie does. She looks down at the sheets and then the floor. She wants to turn over but her shoulder aches and she can't really be on either side at the moment with her knee as fucked up as it is. She bites her lip and tries to pretend she doesn't care.

Carol nods her head and smiles at Lottie once more before leaving the room. Lottie frowns up at the ceiling and tries not to cry.

She does pretty well for a while, but ends up losing it a few hours later. It's late. She glances at her wrist watch but it's too dark to see what time it is. She guesses it's sometime around midnight though and she lets out a little huff of air before bringing her hand to cover her face. She wishes she could turn on her damn side, away from Daryl so she could at least try to be quieter for him. Then again she wishes she wasn't stupid enough to cry in the first place.

"You cryin'?" he mumbles and she gasps, startled and then wipes her eyes and turns her head to look at him.

"No." She replies, smiling a bit in spite of the fresh tears filling her eyes and blurring her vision.

He's staring at her through sleepy eyes and she feels bad. "Did I wake you up?" She asks softly and he shakes his head a little.

She nods and then turns her head back to stare at the ceiling.

"I wish I'd spent more time on the internet." She says suddenly, "Before all this. I wish I'd spent way more time on the internet."

Daryl scoffs at her, "The internet? I wish I'd spent more time just walkin' around without havin to worry about bein' eatin." He says and she huffs out a little laugh, grinning at the ceiling in the darkness. She tilts her head back in his direction.

"Do you hate me?" She asks and the smirk he was wearing moments before fades.

"I don't hate anyone. I just don't care." He says, not meeting her eyes.

"You don't care about me?" He meets her eyes at that and stares for a long time.

"Don't know. Don't wanna think about it." He replies, looking away again.

She smiles at him even though she kind of feels like crying again, at least he doesn't hate her. At least that wasn't directly a no.

"I care about you." She says very softly and she's wondering if she should shut her eyes or watch to say what his face tells her that he won't actually say.

She watches.

His eyes stay fixed on the bed sheet and his expression looks stern.

"I told you I loved you when-"

"I remember." He says shortly and she draws in a ragged breath, nodding her head and looking back at the ceiling. She shivers a little and shuts her eyes tight. A pathetic amount of tears make it down her cheeks and she draws the sheet up to her chin.

"You cold?" He asks suddenly and she glances at him but then looks back up to the ceiling. He's staring at her.

"Nah just 'letting death hug me', that's what my grandma used to say." Her hands are especially cold, they feel numb. She hears him snort.

"No wonder you're so weird." He says shortly and then sort of wiggles closer to her. She gasps at how warm he feels. He's right against her, his head fitting into the crook of her neck and it would be romantic if he wasn't so clearly stiff, like he had to command himself to get that close.

"Thought you didn't care?" She asks softly and she hopes he didn't hear her voice breaking.

"Thought you loved me." He mumbles back and she lets out a quiet snicker.

"I love you more than you'll ever accept, I think, but I'm willing to force it down your throat til you have to."

He snorts again and calls her something, "troublesome", "meddlesome", "tiresome" woman? She's not sure which, but she answers with "Grumpy old man." And that's the last thing she remembers before falling asleep.


	16. Chapter 16 imgur com P0GXM

They're both allowed to leave the house the next day. Hershel tells Lottie she can use his shower and she spends a good twenty minutes trying to convince Daryl he should use it too.

"Don't matter! Just gonna get dirty the next time I go huntin' anyways." He snarls at her and she just stares up at him, wide eyes fixed on his and she bites her lower lip.

"You need to keep your stitches clean anyways. Might as well get the rest of you cleaned up while you have an opportunity. Besides, Hershel and I both agreed that you should take it easy-VERY EASY- for at least a few days, you're not going hunting for a while."

That seems to just piss him off further and he throws the sheets off him and clambers out of bed, he starts putting on his boots and making like he's going to leave so she throws the sheets off herself, sits up and throws her legs over the bed and-

"Aaah!" She lets out a little cry involuntarily before biting down on her lip again, hard. She squeezes her eyes shut and hisses out a breath that makes it sound like she's cold. She looks back to the other side of the bed and he's staring at her.

"Your leg that bad?" He asks, nodding his head in her direction.

"My knee is dislocated. I'm not even sure Hershel noticed. I…" she shakes her head and shrugs a little. His mouth moves to one side like he's thinking and then he finishes putting his boots on and goes stalking around the bed to her side.

"Damn, no wonder you were cryin'." He says when he looks at her leg. It's swollen around the kneecap and looks incredibly deformed, crooked. She lets out a wry laugh at his words and watches as he crouches down in front of her. She wants to put her hands around his neck, kiss his forehead and not be shooed away, like Carol.

She does nothing.

"It's pretty numb from about my calf and down." She says, peeking over the side of the bed at her knee. She grimaces when she sees it and sits up straight again.

He glances up at her and then pokes her foot. She giggles, "I can still feel, and I can still move it." She says simply and he looks up at her again.

"Thought we were gonna have to cut it off." The horrified look on her face makes him snicker and she grins at the sound.

"We are going to have to um…" She licks her lips and stares into his eyes, his attention is entirely on her.

"We're going to have to relocate it….pop it back into place. From the way it looks and feels I don't think I have any major nerve damage, I can still wiggle my toes and everything. I've seen plenty of skateboarders come into the ER with the same thing, I just… need to put it back in place and well… I'm going to need a splint which is…fucking fantastic but.." She trails off and he's staring up at her still.

"I'll get Hershel." He says finally, chewing on the inside of his cheek and he makes to stand up but she grabs his shoulder.

"No. No. I don't. This might be stupid of me, but, can you do it? Please?" He's staring down at the hand that's on his shoulder like he's trying to decide if he should take it off or not. He leaves it there but shakes his head.

"Don't know nothin' about dislocations, could make it worse." She knows he's right. She frowns but nods and lets her hand slide down his chest as he stands.

"I'll do it then. Will you do me a favor though and ask Hershel if he has any splints?" Daryl nods at her and starts going around the side of the bed when there's a little tap at the door and it opens.

"Oh, good, you're awake. Hershel said you guys would be comin' back into camp today." Carol says, smiling and Lottie smiles back at her. Daryl just nods and moves past her, leaving the room.

Once he's gone, Carol shuts the door and goes around the bed, sitting down next to Lottie.

"You gonna tell me what happened or just leave me out of the loop here?" Carol says, eyes wide and fixed on Lottie. Lottie can't help but grin.

"You're such a gossip!" She jokes and Carol grins and swats at her with the sleeve of her cardigan.

"Well you went running out of here after climbing down the damn roof and you were gone for what a day or two? What do you expect! So what happened?" She leans in towards Lottie like she's telling a secret and Lottie sighs.

"Carol, I'm going to be honest with you because you're like a mother, a sister, and a best friend all in one and I kind of really dig it," Carol giggles again at that and Lottie hears her mutter "dig it" under her breath.

"I have some problems with…. Hallucinating. I… see things that aren't real on occasion. Please don't tell anyone else. I didn't want anyone to know but Rick and Daryl found out and I was scared that they were going to kick me out of the group so I ran away…"

She bites her lip and tries to read Carol's facial expression. She can't really make anything of it but she doesn't really need to, Carols shakes her head at her and puts her hand on Lottie's shoulder.

"Oh, honey… you should have known better. Rick would never tell you to leave because of something you can't even control. Especially not after saving Sophia and then his own boy's life. You've earned a spot in this group and if he told you to leave I would put up a fight, I'm sure Daryl would too." Lottie smiles at that and then frowns, feeling like she's going to cry again.

"I'd what?" comes from behind them and they turn to see Daryl standing in the doorway, holding a rather large, uncomfortable looking brace. Lottie glares at it.

"You would put up a fight if Rick tried to kick Lottie out of the group! Especially after she saved little Sophia and then got you back home to us safe and sound." Carol says and Lottie wants to strangle her and tell her to shut up, shut up!

Daryl shoots Lottie a look like she put Carol up to this but Lottie makes a face at Daryl that's the equivalent of "Save me!" and Daryl rolls his eyes at both of them.

"Yeah, she ain't goin' anywhere unless she runs off again. But by the looks of this big ol' thing I don't think she's gonna be runnin' anywhere."

Carol looks at the brace curiously and then down at Lottie's legs.

"Oh, my goodness, I didn't even realize! What happened to your leg!?" Lottie laughs at Carol's ability to be openly sweet as well as nosy and then relays the story of finding Daryl in the woods. Daryl stays standing by the door, listening.

"So I'm thinking to myself, 'not only has this guy shot me but he's also shot himself with a bloody arrow now, great!' and then he pulls the damn thing out of his side like it's nothing! I couldn't believe it!" Daryl snorts somewhere in the background and she shoots him a grin that he pointedly looks away from.

"So after both of them were dead, I take a look at his side and it's an absolute bloody, fucking wreck. I have no idea how he made such a mess of himself just pulling it out but it was bad, so I push up his shirt and start cleaning it out and everything and of course he pulled an arrow out of himself without so much as a an 'ow' but when I put a little rubbing alcohol on his cut he starts acting like a baby!" Carol is laughing loudly and Daryl is just about POUTING by this point and he mutters out, "I wasn't bein a baby, I couldn't even think straight." And Carol just sends him an apologetic look while urging Lottie to continue.

"So I stitch him up and give him some water and the whole time he's telling me 'get off me, woman'", even Daryl snickers at her poor impersonation of a southern accent and she grins at him, "And I was pretty much like, 'No…I love you.'." She blushes at that and looks down and Carol makes a little "aww" noise before looking between Lottie and Daryl.

"The two of you are red as tomatoes. I think you got some things to talk about." She says winking at Lottie who simply gapes at her before crossing the room, patting Daryl affectionately on the shoulder as she does so. He follows her to the door and walks just outside of the room with her, leaving the brace on the bed.

"You think she means it?" He asks Carol, not meeting her eyes and jerking his head back in the direction of the room.

"Daryl Dixon," Carol says, smiling brightly up at him, "if you can't see that girl cares about you as much as I care about Sophia then you best get your eyes checked. That girl has cared about you since the moment she met you, and if she told you she loves you then I'm damn sure she means it." Carol nods once and walks away briskly leaving Daryl standing in the hallway feeling as shocked as if he'd just been slapped until he hears a loud POP and a muffled cry and rushes back into the bedroom.

Xxxxx

Xx

I do NOT claim to be an artist in any respect at all and this drawing is half assed at best, but I thought I'd give you guys a look at Lottie! IF you have been picturing her differently in your mind then I greatly encourage you to continue and ignore this picture, as for the rest of you, here she is! (The jacket has been purposely left blank because I'm not making it too specific here)

imgur P0GXM


	17. Chapter 17

After she's showered and convinced Daryl to shower (this was done through the tears that were already streaming down her face after she popped her knee back in place) they get ready to leave the house.

"You look good without makeup, you know." He tells her when she's standing in front of the mirror putting on her eyeliner and she's so surprised she almost falls into the bathtub.

They exit Hershel's house together. He's not paying much attention to her but he is helping her hobble over to the others so she thinks that's probably worth something. He helps her into a chair near the fire and then goes to lie in his tent. She hobbles after him and lies on the dirt a few feet outside his tent.

Andrea comes up a few minutes later to tell her she's sorry. "Dale already told me, Andrea. Don't worry about it. It was a good shot, ok? It doesn't matter." Andrea looks genuinely apologetic but Lottie is smiling up at her, Daryl's tent unzips at that and he pokes his head out.

"Don't matter? Why you always like that nothing matters if it happens to you but I get an arrow through my side and you act like I'm dyin'." Andrea looks between the two of them very confused. She starts to back up.

"You shoot her again and you're gonna wish you shot me instead." Daryl grumbles at her and she gives a wry laugh before returning to the RV.

Lottie smiles at him and lies back down on the dirt.

"What you doin' over here anyways, thought I left you in a chair." He glares at her.

She pouts back.

"I think I teleported." She says quietly and he frowns. "What the hell's wrong with you?" She laughs out loud at that, "What's wrong with you? You're extra grumpy right now." She adds softly.

He stares at her and then sighs. It comes out as more of an irritated huff.

"Don't like bein' laid up, can't go huntin', can't go lookin' for a house with the others, just sittin' around here doin' nothing. Borin'."

She stares back at him and then giggles again.

"We could go pick some flowers." She says and he rolls his eyes at her.

Xxx

"You like gettin' hurt or somethin'?" He asks gruffly as he helps her limp along the outskirts of the field where some small purple flowers are growing.

"No, I'm just used to it. I'm always throwing myself under buses for other people. Literally as well as figuratively." She replies, stooping down to pick some more flowers. She has a decent bouquet going. When he doesn't respond she looks back up at him and he's looking at her like he has no idea what she just said. She laughs.

"Close your eyes?" She asks and he gives an annoyed noise. "Why?" She tells herself that his country twang is not cute, especially when its butchering the English language, thank you very much. She's lying.

"Because I can't do it if you're watching me." She answers softly, and she can feel the blush creeping up her cheeks. He stares at her for what feels like 24254q363264243 million years and then closes his eyes.

She stands up on her tip toes to try to kiss him but her right leg fails to serve her while stuck inside the splint and she ends up teetering awkward, grabbing around his neck for support to keep her from falling. It jerks his head forward and she thinks, "Fuck, I'll take what I can get." And smashes her lips against his before detaching herself immediately and promptly falling on the ground.

He growls.

"Why'd you let go! Now you're on the damn ground and you lost all your stupid flowers!" He barks at her and she stares up at him curiously before grinning.

"I thought I'd let go before you shoved me off." She says and her smile sort of fades and she looks at the dirt instead. When she looks back up he's staring at her like she's a rubix cube and she bites her lip. She's about to tell him that staring at her like she's an annoying puzzle will not, in fact, make her disappear but Rick jogs up to them, back from shooting practice.

"Uh, well I came to talk to you two about well… your problem, Lottie, but…do you need some help? Are you two ok out here?" He asks and the look of honest concern on his face makes Lottie smile even brighter. She looks to Daryl though to see if he sees him first and when Daryl snorts and says, "We're fine." Lottie extends her hand towards Rick and asks, "I'd love your help."

She doesn't notice Daryl narrowing his eyes or biting down on his lip.

Rick helps her to her feet and she instantly loops her arm around his to help keep her steady. Daryl blatantly glares at Rick and Lottie frowns back at him.

"So, uh. Lottie. I'm going to be honest with you. I know very little about your…problem… but what I do know leads me to believe that it's hard and confusing for you to deal with as well as… a bit of a problem for all of us. If you were to take watch and you saw walkers that weren't really there you would raise alarm for everyone with no good reason, and if you saw walkers that you thought were…fake, but weren't, it could put everyone at risk. So I'm afraid to tell you that is one job you won't be getting. I honestly think that your nursing skills are helpful enough to the group to make it so it doesn't even matter. You said you can take care of yourself and you've stayed alive on your own for this long, so I'm not really concerned. What do you think, Daryl?" he nods his head in Daryl's direction and Daryl continues glaring.

For a moment Daryl considers saying, "I think you should get your hands off her." But instead he says, "Sounds about right." And looks away.

Rick nods.

"I don't think we need to tell the rest of the group so if you want this to stay between us then that's fine, I won't break your trust. But if you have another…outburst…then they're going to find out and they might not take it as well as Daryl and me. Do you have any idea of medications you could take that we could possibly find at the pharmacy in town to help…control it? It's true that it is a little…frightening to find you yelling at absolutely no one in a barn."

She scowls at that and kind of pulls away from Rick, attempting to stand on her one good leg.

"I have medication and I took some today, I don't like taking them every day because factories aren't exactly pumping them out anymore. I'd prefer that this remain between us, Rick, and I'm sorry that the fact that my brain doesn't work right frightens you." She stares down at the ground between them and Daryl watches Rick carefully.

Rick puts his hand on Lottie's back and Daryl feels his hands curl into fists at his sides, he shuffles in place, feeling like walking away, punching Rick, and doing nothing all at once.

"Now you know I didn't mean it like that, and I'm glad you have medications. I'm sorry if I offended you, Lottie. I don't…I … I need you on my side, you're important, ok? And I'm sorry." He pats her back a little and then he walks away. Daryl glares viciously at Rick's back as he walks away, his face contorted with anger. Lottie sighs and looks at Daryl.

"I guess I'm just a little sensitive about it." She says, trying to smile up at him. He snaps his attention to her as though she just appeared. "Yeah, you're sensitive about everything, it's fuckin' stupid." He snarls and she gasps. "Oh." She chokes out after a minute of standing there, opening and closing her mouth while staring at him like a brain-dead fish.

"Wait here." He says gruffly and leaves her standing at the field's edge while he runs after Rick.

He catches up to Rick at nearly the beginning of the empty field, Rick looks at him expectantly and Daryl gets in his face immediately.

"What you mean she's 'important', why she so important to you?" Daryl yells and Rick's taken aback but not exactly surprised. "She's important to all of us, Daryl, you think Carl would have had half a chance surviving without her? Not just her blood but her medical experience? What about you, you cut yourself open with an arrow, what if she hadn't been there to patch you up?"

"You said she was important to YOU, that you want her on 'your SIDE'! What the fuck's that supposed to mean? I think you and Shane need to stay away from her." Rick eyes him but asks calmly, almost quietly, "Why Shane?"

Daryl growls in frustration, clutching at his head like it's going to explode.

"Don't you damn people notice anything!? He stares at her like he wants to fuck her in the middle of the damn camp! You and your stupid deputy need to stay the hell away from her, you got me?" He grits out and Rick nods his head compliantly.

"She's your girl then, that's what you're saying?" Rick asks, watching Daryl pace in front of him.

"Damn right, so keep your fuckin' hands off her." Daryl mumbles and Rick breaks into a smile, even laughs, Daryl glares at him.

"Good on you, Daryl, that's real good. I'm uh, I'm proud of you, Lottie's a great girl, she's a catch, that's for sure."

"Yeah, whatever man, I said not to look at her." Daryl grumbles, walking back out to where he'd left her, not realizing what he'd just admitted to.


	18. Chapter 18

I-Can-Spell-Confusion-With-A-K: You are like my favorite thing! I love your reviews and the fact that I'm "making your work day better" is totally making my day, thank you so much for reading and reviewing! 3

Thanks to everyone else who reviewed, but none of you guys have said anything about her appearance? I noticed the link was a little funny so to make it simpler its imgur P0GXM

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"The barn's full of walkers." Glenn says awkwardly and Lottie turns her attention from watching Daryl eat breakfast to the small Asian man standing in front of everyone. From her spot on the dirt she has to crane her neck to see his face and she's uncomfortable. Daryl had told her not to sit on the ground but she had ended up there anyways, chatting with Sophia who was sitting in a lawn chair on the opposite side of the fire from Daryl.

Everyone began to make a fuss and once they all finished eating they began to migrate towards the barn to investigate, she sighed and made every attempt to get up on her own but eventually Daryl had to come help her up, calling her a turtle while he was at it.

Carol hung behind with Carl and Sophia.

"I'm not really sure you should be doing such strenuous lifting. You need to wait for your stitches to finish healing." Lottie says to him as he helps her hobble over to the barn.

He snorts, "Says the chick who ripped her stitches out the same damn day she put 'em in racin' across the forest like you thought you were a damn horse. And I can probably lift you over my head with one arm, Carl probably weighs more than you." She grins up at him, he's in a good mood.

When they get to the barn it's clear that walkers are inside, she's kind of irritated that she hadn't noticed it sooner. She feels dumb.

Rick and Shane begin arguing about the walkers, Shane is all for busting the barn open and killing them all, right then and there. Rick is, of course, remind them that this is Hershel's land and they need to be respectful but Shane doesn't seem to care.

"This is ridiculous, Rick is right! You can't just come onto someone's property and expect them to let you live there, eat their food, drink their water, and walk all over them! You've been fighting since the day you got here, wanted to hold onto your gun, wanted to walk around with guns on his property, and now you want to kill the walkers in the barn when he's clearly against it! You can't push what you want on other people, shit doesn't work like that!" She's pretty sure it's the most she's ever spoken in front of the group as a whole and they're all staring at her.

Shane shakes his head, "This is about our safety! We're sleepin' twenty feet away from a bunch of walkers, and you know what I don't really care about your opinion, you little schizoid bitch! How do you even know I'm here right now! You don't! Do you!? Yeah, Rick told me all about your little problem, it's no wonder you're hangin' around Daryl, everyone else here is smart enough to stay away from you!"

Daryl lets her go and strides toward Shane like he's about to punch him, "You don't know what the hell you're talking about! You wanna fuckin start!" Shane goes towards them and its suddenly a lot of yelling, a lot of shoving, Daryl and Shane both look like they're ready to tackle the other to the ground and Lottie is standing there, watching the whole exchange with eyes wider than an owl's and ready to hyperventilate. Andrea finally shoves Daryl away and Lori shoves Shane in the opposite direction. Lottie stands somewhere in the middle feeling lost and like she's just been punched in the stomach.

"Come on." She's aware she's being lead back to the camp but she doesn't even really remember the conversation ending.

"Can I sleep in your tent tonight?" She asks softly and Daryl peers down at her.

"Why?" He asks. She pouts. "I guess I can ask Shane, even though he thinks I'm crazy…" Daryl glares at her and snarls, "You're sleepin' with me." She gives a little smile and he just scoffs in her general direction before leaving her in a chair by the fire, off to do God knows what.

She sits there for all of twenty minutes before she wants to kill herself again. Andrea, Lori and Dale are all staring at her like she's grown a second head and she finally wanders off to the edge of the field, to collect more flowers for Sophia.

She passes the stables and sees Carol talking to Daryl inside them, he looks like he's preparing a horse. She frowns. He's going to rip his damn stitches out if he goes anywhere today, or for the next few days.

She pauses at the entrance, listening to Carol plead with him not to go.

"Now that there are walkers in the barn we need to find somewhere else to go, we can't stay here, Hershel don't even want us here." He's saying and Carol is shaking her head.

"Rick and Shane are going looking, you don't need to go, you need to rest."

"I'm not gonna sit around doin' nothin'." He says as he prepares the horse and Carol crosses her arms over her chest. "No, you're gonna go out there and get yourself hurt even worse. Please stay."

When he says nothing she adds, "I can't take worrying about losing you the way I had to worry about Sophia. Please."

Daryl stares at her for a long time before throwing the horse's reins on the stable floor and then picking up the saddle and heaving it across the room. He instantly doubled over in pain, Lottie's eyes widen and she starts toward him. Carol's already at his side asking if he's ok and he yells something at her Lottie can't make out before stalking off in Lottie's direction.

"Stupid bitch." He shoots back at Carol and then he finally notices Lottie gaping at him.

"What you want? Why you always followin' me around like a lost damn dog? Why can't you just leave me alone!" He yells at her and makes to move away but she grabs onto his bicep, he shakes her off instantly, "Why can't you accept the fact that people care about you? Carol cares about you. I care about you. I… I love you, Daryl, for god's sake. I've never told anyone but my grandma that, but it's true."

He stops and stares at her for a long time, looking bewildered and angry.

"Let me see your stitches." She asks softly and he says nothing but takes a step towards her. She stares into her eyes but let her fingers find the bottom of his shirt, lifting it up and her fingers inch onto the skin beneath. The stitches look an angry shade of red but otherwise fine. She lets her fingers continue to search his skin, relishing in how soft it feels compared to the roughness of his calloused hands. She traces his abs and moves her hands upwards towards his chest before returning her gaze to his face. He's watching her with a confused but almost sleepy expression. She gives him a tiny smile.

"Do you want me to stop?" She whispers and he lets his eyes flutter shut a little and gulps before he answers her, "No, god, no. No girl's ever touched me like this, like I'm…some…some…"

"Something special." She finishes for him, continuing to lightly trace his skin and his eyes open again, blue looking into gold green and she adds, "You're special. Your body is like art. It's beautiful."

His mouth hangs open a little bit and she murmurs, "Hold still." Before removing her hands from beneath his shirt and stepping forward, wrapping both her arms around him and pressing her face into his chest. She doesn't hug her back but he doesn't push her away and she moves her arms back to her sides before unbuttoning the top most button of his shirt, peeling it open and planting a kiss on his chest before sealing it back up.

She steps away from him and he swallows again, staring at her. "Damn." He mumbles and she giggles.

"Meet you in your tent, don't say a word." She says in her mock country accent before winking at him and he scoffs, rolling his eyes.

"Come on." He grumbles, helping her back to the camp.


	19. Chapter 19

_**Thanks everyone for the reviews! If the picture link didn't work for you its because its spaced out, you have to remove the spaces! Its nothing special though so no worries. Thanks for reading! 3**_

_**Also, a lot of you guys seem stuck on the idea that he is SUPER 1000% AGAINST PHYSICAL CONTACT AND BEING SWEET OR LAUGHING OR ANYTHING but I think from the actual show its pretty clear that he isn't. He's really awkward about it but he craves it just as much as the next lonely person with trust issues. He has a really sweet side that you see a lot. Besides if he was constantly shoving her away from him and refusing cuddles this story would go nowhere and be very boring.**_

_**I-Can-Spell-Crazy-With-A-K: I don't have chapters stashed up, I am literally updating as soon as I write one! I have some down time today! As for your "Daryl Time"…well that sounds very cute but this chapter (and the next certainly) are far from cute. This one is um. Just not cute and the next well.**_

_**The next will be a different kind of Daryl time.**_

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Daryl and Lottie sit near his tent for a while, Daryl sharpening his knife and Lottie babbling about how much she'd like a cow and playing with her stuffed pig when Daryl notices Carol sniffling standing outside the RV.

"I'll be back in a minute." Daryl says suddenly, standing up and walking towards Carol. Lottie knows where he's going and smiles when Lori walks up. Lottie frowns at her.

"Hey, Lottie, can I…talk to you for a minute?" Lottie nods. She took her pill today, she should be fine. Lori should be real.

"Uh, I don't know what Rick told you… he told me that he let you know that we all want you to stay with the group and he said he let you know that you're important to us but… really he said all that for me…I'm uh… I'm pregnant."

Lottie smiles and nods. "I know. This is a nice farm but I really doubt Hershel is going to let us stay. It's going to be difficult unless the guys find another place… I'd be out there looking but I can hardly walk, and Daryl still needs to wait for his stitches to heal… I'll be here for you though, answer any questions you have, help you with anything you need and do checkups as regularly as possible, ok?"

Lori nods and smiles, she looks like she's about to cry. "Thank you. It means a lot. I know you and I haven't exactly talked much or anything but I appreciate all you've done for us, for Carl. You're a great person." Lottie laughs and shoos her away.

"I'll tell Shane to apologize, he shouldn't have said those things, he was just angry at the moment." Lori says before walking away and Lottie sighs she doesn't exactly want Shane to apologize, she doesn't really care, she doesn't want anything to do with that asshole.

Shane starts walking towards her exactly 9 minutes later, according to Lottie's rainbow wristwatch, and sits down next to her. Lottie wonders if this many people have ever come by Daryl's tent before now.

"Lottie I want to say, I'm sorry, for saying what I said and outing your secret. I was just…mad about the walkers and I was willing to shoot down anyone who went against me." He sounds like he's reading from a script and Lottie gives her best fake smile and nods.

"Lemme see your shoulder." He says suddenly and Lottie stares him down suspiciously before sitting up, she puts one hand on him to steady herself and then turns so her back is facing him.

"The back is worse and I can't see it very well to know how it's doing." She murmurs, feeling exposed and nervous. She doesn't see Daryl come around the other side of the RV with Carol, or him staring at her and breathing loudly out of his nose like an angry bull.

Shane slides her jacket down her left arm and then the strap of her tanktop and then, "GET YOUR HANDS OFF HER, MAN."

She peeks behind her to see Daryl standing there, glaring down at Shane, baring his teeth, looking ready to fight.

Shane immediately removes his hands and holds them in front of him.

"There a problem, Daryl?" He asks smugly and Daryl growls, "Damn right there's a problem, you need to get your fucking hands off my girl."

Shane raises an eyebrow at that and gets to his feet. "Sorry, Dixon, didn't know white trash could get a girl." He says simply and Lottie's sure that Daryl is about to punch him in his stupid, smug face so she lets out a cry.

"It hurts!" and pouts up at Daryl. He looks from her to Shane and then says "You're lucky."

"Yeah, I got better things to do anyway." Shane says back, suddenly looking distracted and heading towards the RV.

"What's wrong with you?" Daryl asks, sitting down behind Lottie like Shane had been doing.

She turns to look at him, "I was just scared."

Daryl stares at her, "Why you lettin' him touch you like that, you like him?" His eyes are searching her for an explanation and she doesn't understand at first but when she does she laughs, loud and high pitched.

"Are you jealous?" She giggles out and Daryl makes a face at her, she laughs more at it.

"You are! It's endearing, don't be annoyed!" He rolls his eyes and gets up from his spot and she whines. "I don't like Shane, Daryl." He stares down at her but still look annoyed.

"He's not sexy like you." She says suddenly and then scrabbles to her feet and begins limping away as quickly as possible, leaving him stunned and confused staring after her.

She and Carol sit down on the porch and Carol is telling her stories of ex boyfriends and high school sweethearts. "So he ended up giving me the exact flower I was allergic to and I broke out in hives and had to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance!" Carol finishes and Lottie is laughing uncontrollably, leaning back on the steps of the porch clutching her sides when Daryl stalks up, Shane comes up from the opposite direction with a big duffel bag full of guns. Lottie sits back up and stares.

"What's all this?" Daryl asks and Shane just mutters out, "You with me, man?" And Daryl takes a gun without questioning it, Shane tosses Lottie a handgun and she bites her lip, Carol helps her to her feet.

Shane starts ranting about how they have to make the farm safe and he coaxes Glenn into taking a gun too.

"You have to stop, if you do this my dad will make you leave tonight." Maggie grits out and Lori comes up, growling at Shane about how it's Rick's call, not his. Lottie watches feeling anxious, she looks to Daryl for support but he just looks hyped up about killing stuff. She frowns.

"OH SHIT, ITS RICK!" TDog calls out and they all look out to the end of the field to see Rick and Hershel coming from the woods with Walkers trapped on the ends of long, metal poles. They all begin running towards them, Daryl included and Lottie runs as fast as she can too, ignoring the pain shooting up her leg and the annoying feeling of her knee moving around in a way it shouldn't be.

Shane's screaming at Hershel about how they aren't people, he shoots one of them to demonstrate, "A PERSON CAN'T WALK AWAY FROM THAT. TWO SHOTS TO THE CHEST AND SHE'S STILL COMING, A PERSON CAN'T WALK AWAY FROM THAT!" He's yelling and Daryl's right there with him, gun trained on the other walker's head. Lottie is panting from near the gate, shaking her head and watching.

Shane finally shoots it in the head and Rick's still holding onto the other walker when Shane starts screaming about how they have to fight for their lives, "RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW, NO MORE OF THIS, RICK!" he yells and Rick is screaming at Hershel to take the walker from him but Hershel's on the floor. He looks torn, Lottie steps forward, unsure of what's happening next, Daryl hasn't noticed her, his gun is still trained on the walker Rick is controlling.

Shane hacks open the lock on the barn and Lottie gasps, Lori moves Carl behind her, Maggie gets on her knees and holds onto her father, and everyone raises their weapons, Lottie included, as the barn door opens and walkers begin pouring out.

Shane stays up front and begins shooting them instantly, Daryl runs forward and starts shooting too, Lottie hesitates but takes a few steps forward, gun raised, ready to protect those behind her if needed but nothing else.

Andrea, Glenn, Shane, and Daryl are taking care of them decently, Lottie's gun is still raised, trained on any walker that seems like it's getting too close to Daryl in particular, but he's doing fine so far. She's breathing raggedly, scared for his life even though she knows he can take care of himself.

The surge of walkers ends soon enough and she runs to him, grabs onto his arm and he nearly jerks back and elbows her but she remembers their first meeting and dodges it. He looks at her like he's confused how she got there and she stares back at him the worry clear in her eyes and he grabs her, pulls her into his side and stares at the barn. One of Hershel's daughters comes running forward, sobbing and slides down onto her knees, grabbing at a dead walker and crying, "Mom, Mom!" it growls and grabs at her, evidently not dead and it takes nearly everyone there to pry it off her and kill it, Daryl included.

Lottie shakes her head and goes back to Carol, they begin walking back to the campsite together, Lottie's limp a lot worse, and her pace a lot slower. Carol makes a sympathetic hmm at her but says nothing, just helps support Lottie's weight.

When they get back to the camp Carol immediately clutches Sophia to her, kissing her head and telling her she loves her and it reminds Lottie of the day she first found the group. Lottie shakes her head and leans against a tree, clutching at her leg.

She watches Daryl talk to the others down at the barn, watches them start to sort out the bodies, getting ready to clean up, probably burn them.

They dig holes for a certain few, probably Hershel's other family members. Lottie swallows a lump that's building in her throat- Hershel's wife. The girl's mom. She breathes in deep, telling herself not to cry.

They hold a little memorial service for Hershel's lost friends and family and Lottie barely makes it back down there. Her limp is atrocious and she's practically dragging her right leg. Daryl again, doesn't seem to notice. She's irritated enough to stand next to Shane to make him look but when he does he just seems pissed and he sneers at her before looking away. She shakes her head and when she does cry, no one even notices.

"That coulda been Sophia in there." Daryl finally grumbles at her when they're the last two standing at the little lumps in a row on the ground.

She's surprised at that and she stares at him for a long time before deciding its best to say nothing. If he's being open then she should just let him be.

"I thought if I didn't find that little girl, Carol would be torn apart and she'd blame me for not findin' her. She was the only person in this damn place that treated me like I was somethin' other than a doofus with a crossbow. So me and Rick go lookin' for her, and I find you, and you're already guardian Sophia with your life. You're the reason she's up there with Carol and not six feet under right now."

He finishes awkwardly and he stares at her. She shakes her head and lets out a puff of air in disbelief before stepping up to him, cupping his face in her hands and kissing him hard on the lips. This time she kisses him long enough for him to kiss back and she loves every second of it, he must be the best damn kisser on the god damn planet, and wow, he managed to stay alive, what are the odds?

When they're both in need of air they break the kiss, gasping and he fixes her with a stare and a smirk, "And don't think I don't notice you fucked your leg up running around back there."

He scoops her up and carries her back to the camp.


	20. Chapter 20

_**Eeeeep! I was told by an amazing reader/reviewer that Lottie is/or is turning into a Mary Sue. I would rather make horrid grammar mistakes, have my spelling be atrocious and have every single person be completely ooc than have my oc be a Mary Sue. Ugh! It makes me want to stop writing this, I guess I'll just throw myself off a bridge now.**_

_**This chapter was especially hard to write and for the love of God I hope it doesn't make her seem even more like a Mary Sue, I'm so done. **_

_**I just wanted to keep Daryl's little break down and yelling in here because I think it brings out a lot of stuff for him, I think it was really therapeutic for him to yell at someone like he did at Carol in the show…ugh, fml, I'm trying.**_

_**Anyways, Happy Halloween everyone and thanks, as always, for reading and reviewing 3**_

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He moves his tent far away on the field, away from everyone else and no one questions it. It makes her curious as to how things were before she joined the group but she doesn't say anything or ask about it. He leaves her sitting by the fire with the rest of the group while he packs up their things and moves them and she overhears the others talking about going into town. Hershel is missing and one of his daughters is in shock. Rick and Glenn went after him, thinking he was at some bar in the town. Lottie limps inside to check her out and barely makes it to the room before collapsing into a chair in pain.

"For fuck's sake!" She hisses out and Maggie looks at her sympathetically. "You ought to stay off that, its not gonna heal right you keep tryin' to run around on it." She says and Lottie laughs a little looking up at her, "I know but it's just so damn hard. Things are always happening with this group, they're like a living soap opera." Maggie gives a wry laugh but her smile quickly fades.

"I'm really sorry about the barn. Shane is rash… he doesn't seem to have a clear head. I…. I'm wary about him." She says simply, biting her lip and forcing herself to meet Maggie's eyes. Maggie frowns and nods and Lottie gets up again then to check on her sister.

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Shane comes out to where Daryl is sitting, making new arrows out of wood scraps, sharpening them with his hunting knife.

Shane stands there for a moment and Daryl glances up at him but keeps sharpening the wood.

"Gotta tell you, man. You made a good choice going for that one." Shane says, leaning himself against a tree. Daryl's eyes flicker to Shane and then back to the arrow he's making. He says nothing.

"Couldn't help but notice that she patched you up, she brought you back here, man she even pushed you to the ground and took a damn bullet for you." Shane rambles, he's nodding his head down at Daryl and moving around emphatically as though to emphasize his words.

"Didn't think you were the type of guy to need a chick to take care of you." Shane finishes and Daryl stops sharpening the arrow and looks up at Shane.

"I'm not. " he growls out.

"Oh yeah? Because it sure looks that way to me. Like she's your mama, am I right? Takin' care of her little baby boy because he can't take care of himself. Bet you never wanted to fuck your mama though, even if you are a piece of redneck trash." Daryl growls at him and practically bares his teeth.

"Well if you're just usin her to take care of you and save your ass then I might as well fuck her. Nice little thing like that, someone's gotta. You see, Daryl, these women have needs and you're just like Rick you think cause you can hunt and you can kill a walker you can do anything but that's not all it takes. And now that Rick's back in the picture and he's screwin' Lori, well, I need a new piece of ass. I got needs too. And Lottie-well, Lottie is just damn perfect. Once you get passed the fact that she's bat shit crazy and she feels like she's gotta take care of her baby Daryl that is." Daryl stands up and throws the arrow down to the dirt sticking his knife in Shane's direction instead.

"I don't need no one to take care of me, I ain't no one's 'baby boy'! And you best get the hell away from me and Lottie or you're gonna wish that Hershel really did kick you off his fuckin' farm. LEAVE." He snarls and Shane holds his hands up, palms facing out in front of his chest, but he laughs.

"Man, I didn't think you had the balls without your little guardian angel around. I'll leave, but you better not get ahead of yourself, girl like that, well she fits damn perfect with a guy like me."

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Lottie frowns, letting go of the young girl's wrist.

"She's definitely in shock. She's going to be ok for right now but she's going to get dehydrated, I can come back to check on her later if Hershel isn't back by then and set up an IV… other than that there's not much I can do… keep her warm…" Lottie says, frowning, "I'm sorry."

Maggie just nods, clamping a hand over her mouth. She looks like she's going to cry and Lottie's heart breaks. She hugs Maggie tightly to her and then exits the house, declining the invitation to dinner. She limps lowly across the field to try to get to where Daryl set up the tent. It's dark but if anything that only makes it easier to see the tent with the fire he has going and she's nearly there when Daryl comes jogging up to her.

"What the hell you doin', girl? I told you to stay with the others and I'd come and get you." He says but she can tell he's not mad, she's pleased she can tell the difference but then again reading people has always been easy for her. Until Daryl, she guesses, because when it came to reading Daryl it was like trying to read Latin in braille. She smiles at him and shrugs her shoulders, flinching at the pain in her left shoulder.

"I got tired, thought I'd… you know, go lie down for a bit… keep you company." She's grinning at him, and she's considering telling him that she loves his face-even when it's all grumpy but he's narrowing his eyes at her, annoyed. Her grin fades.

"You don't gotta be with me every damn second! I don't need you hoverin' over my damn shoulder like a fuckin' angel because you sure as hell ain't one. I DON'T. NEED. YOU." He snarls at her and she swallows and then gasps a little, he's about an inch and a half from her face at the most, he's angry, she can feel his breath on her cheeks.

"Ok." She breathes out and he backs up a step and stares at her, sneers at her.

"Ok? It ain't ok! What the hell is the matter with you!? I don't fuckin' get you, why the hell you follow me around like a lost damn dog! I'm sick of you, why don't you get out of here!"

She stands still and stares at him, and she nods, biting her lip but says nothing. If he needs to get this out if he needs to yell at her, god if he needs to hit her, then so be it. She should have seen this coming anyways with how everyone warned her that he was a solitary guy, didn't talk to anyone. And here she had imposed on his little world he'd created for one. She tried to force herself into it, force him to accept her, to like her back, and if he was finally snapping then she would stand there and let him snap, let him do it in front of her, and maybe afterwards he would let her stick around, maybe he'd even let her kiss him again if she was really god damn lucky. She knew from (several) first hand experiences though that sometimes you just have to yell at someone, scream at them, shove at them. Even if they didn't deserve it.

"Why you nodding at me! What do you want!? Just go! I don't want you here!" He waves an arm in the direction of the house and she tries to control her breathing as he gets close to her face again, yelling, "You know you're a real piece of work, bitch." He snarls, taking a step back and then stepping in again even closer, "What you gonna try to turn this into a tell all about my family, about my life, about my daddy, some crap like that?" He scoffs and makes like he's going to walk back to his tent but then he turns and comes back at her, she flinches involuntarily but if he notices he doesn't show it.

"You know what, you're just afraid! You're afraid because you're all alone! No friends, no family, no one gives a shit about you and you don't know what to do with yourself and you know, you ain't my problem! I could've made it back here without your damn help, I didn't need you! I don't need you! YOU DON'T MATTER!" He yells finally and he steps close, too close and she's sure he's going to hit her and her eyes flutter shut, the rest of her body freezing in place.

Nothing happens though and she reopens her eyes. He's standing in front of her, paused and he's glaring down at her, he still looks ready to take a swing and she lets out a long, shuddering breath.

"Ok." She whispers out and nods one last time before turning around and beginning to limp back to the group's camp.

She's no more than twenty feet away when she hears the crunch of footsteps behind her. She doesn't turn and she doesn't stop walking.

"I know you can hear me, girl, wait." A voice grumbles and Lottie heaves a sigh, wiping at her wet eyes before stopping, still refusing to turn around. He goes around and stands in front of her.

"You shouldn't be walking back and forth on that leg, you're just fuckin' it up even worse."

She stares at him in thought before nodding, fixing her gaze on the yellowing grass, "Yeah, well, I'm not very good at taking care of myself."

"You're pretty damn good at takin' care of everyone else." He grumbles and she looks up at him, slanting her mouth to one side in discontent.

He's chewing at the inside of his cheek and he won't meet her eyes. She sighs, "I'm just going to go back to camp, see if Dale will let me sleep in the RV or something, ok?" She asks finally and then adds as a bitchy afterthought, "Oh, wait, why am I asking you? I don't matter, completely forgot." She huffs out and starts limping away again, he rolls his eyes and catches up with her in less than a second.

"What you want me to say I'm sorry?" He shoots out at her and she stops walking again, looking him dead in the eye.

"No. No I don't. I just… It seems clear that I'm bothering you so… I'm going to give you some space…find someone else to follow around for a while, I guess." She mutters and his eyebrows furrow. He frowns until he looks like he's downright pouting and then finally says, "Hell no, I don't want you followin' anyone but me, come on."

The "what?" that's about to come out of her mouth is cut off as he scoops her up into his muscular arms and begins carrying her to his tent. She frowns, peering down from her place in his arms and says, "I think you must like carrying me, it's okay, you can admit it." He makes an annoyed face at her, "I don't like to, you're the one that's always having to be carried, breakin' your damn legs, might as well cut 'em off." He grumbles and she gives a little laugh, surprised when he carries her all the way there and actually puts her inside his tent.

"I'm sorry." He mumbles and she shakes her head at him, "No, I told you, you don't need to apologize. I understand." His eyebrows furrow in her direction again and she smiles, shaking her head at him.

"Don't apologize. I know already." She says again softly and he moves towards her in the tent, his movements noisy on the sleeping bag she's currently lying on.

His arms get to her first and he's tugging at her jacket, she sits up and pulls it off, and then her tank top, and then her bra. He carefully pulls off her boots and tosses them outside the tent, making her laugh at his eagerness.

He zips the tent almost entirely closed and they move together in the dark.

"Careful of my leg." She whispers and he grunts in return, pulling off his shirt and her fingers begin fumbling with his pants. He tugs down her shorts with no problem at all and finds her bare beneath them, he growls in frustration at her, and she answers with an, "oops, guess I went commando today, you'd be surprised at how often I forget my underwear." He growls louder at that and begins peppering her chest and neck with kisses and bites, she's moaning and she's glad he moved the fucking tent, the others probably would have thought Daryl was being eaten by a walker by now.

She bites onto his neck and sucks on it until he groans and she loves that sound so much she does it again and again and again.

He kisses her lips, biting and tugging at them and whenever he pulls away for air she whispers "I love you's" and "I need you"'s at him until he kisses her again just to shut her up.

When he finally enters her she hisses with pain and he stops to make sure she's okay. She nods eagerly and tells him that she's just amazed that he cares and he pulls back out at that, kisses her more at that, tangles his hands in her hair at that and she would swear that she heard and "I love you." Grumbled out but she doesn't try to make him say it again.

She always worried that after her abuse she would never be able to have sx again, she would always be too afraid, she tells Daryl afterwards, when they're lying curled up together naked, but with Daryl she felt so comfortable, so awestruck and "don't make fun of me for being girly" in love that her fear seemed to melt away. It was the greatest night of her life, she murmurs to him and he doesn't say anything but she knows he's listening; he's good at that even if the others don't think he is. "I love you." She whispers, one last time, cuddling close to him and kissing his chest a bit. She swears she hears that gruff, "I love you." One more time before she falls asleep, but just like before, she doesn't try to make him say it again, or even show any sign that she heard him say it, and instead settles for kissing his neck one last time before the world goes black.


	21. Chapter 21

_**Wow! Some of you guys are completely unabashed! I'm not the greatest at writing smut stuff that isn't slash so sorry about last chapter but it seems like a lot of you guys thought it was hot anyways so, great!**_

_**Thanks so much for reading and reviewing, as always 3**_

_**Xxx**_

Xx

Lottie's limp is still bad but she woke up early and snuck out of the tent and back to the campsite with the others so Daryl wouldn't feel obligated to carry her. She loved being in his arms and she thought it was sweet but it made her feel like a burden.

Besides she needed some quality Carol time.

She wasn't expecting Rick, Glenn and Hershel to be back but she was glad that they were and when Maggie gave Glenn a change to breathe she gave him a little hug of her own. Then they addressed the guy in the back of the car.

His name is Randall. He was part of the group that had been shooting at Rick. They plan to take him about twenty miles out and drop him off somewhere, if he lives he lives and if he dies it's not on their conscience. Rick and Shane leave to take him and Lottie finds Carol starting breakfast for the camp.

She whispers everything to Carol in hushed tones, right down to the size of –

"WHAT?"

"Sssshhh!" Lottie hisses, practically everyone in the camp is staring at the two of them, "Keep your voice down, once you're done cooking breakfast come with me over by the side of the house and I'll tell you there."

Xxx

Daryl wakes up in a hot, stuffy, tent- alone and groans, stretching himself out. He tugs his clothes on and steps outside the tent. No Lottie.

He peeks around his little campsite. No Lottie. He groans again in irritation and grabs his crossbow, "That dumb bitch walked the whole way herself." He grumbles before heading towards the main camp.

"Where's Lottie?" He grumbles at Lori and she looks taken aback by his presence.

"Uh, I don't know, she wandered off somewhere with Carol." She replies and he nods at her in thanks but he's still annoyed and he still doesn't know where she is. He's peering down the field from the top of the RV when she and Carol come from the side of the house, Lottie limping heavily as they make their way back by the fire. Daryl gets down from the RV and stalks up to them just as their finishing their conversation.

Carol said something and is giggling.

"I know! I just can't believe-" Lottie cuts off her sentence when she notices Daryl standing there and he frowns, "What can't you believe?"

Lottie looks to Carol for help but Carol is very pointedly studying one of the RV's tires so Lottie just blurts out, "I can't believe it's not butter?"

Daryl stares at her for a long time looking too serious and contemplative. Like maybe he's contemplating throwing her into the forest and she makes a little whining sound.

"Say something, please? Anything? Tell me I'm being troublesome or meddlesome or whatever silly word, just say something."

"Told you not to be walkin' on that damn leg." He grumbles and she was bracing herself for an insult so hearing that makes her laugh and hobble awkwardly toward him, embracing him tightly.

His body stiffens and she can feel everyone's eyes burning into them so she ends it quickly but mutters, "Just wanted a hug…" as she's pulling away and it makes him look at her in such an almost apologetic way that she grabs onto his hand and kisses it before plopping down in a chair by Carl and Sophia, having promised them that she would tell them a story when she came back from talking to Carol.

"Now, I know a lot of stories…the only problem is most of them are…grizzly horror stories that I don't think your mamas would appreciate." She tells them and Carl and Sophia "awwwww" in unison before turning to beg their respective mothers. Daryl is smirking at her while eating his breakfast and since he doesn't seem to think she's noticed, she shoots him a wink that nearly makes him choke on her food.

She ends up telling the kids one of the less grizzly horror stories about a "Tulpa" and its path from someone's mind to the real world she has more or less the whole camp entranced in the story apart from Lori and Andrea. She's just finished telling the story when Shane's little car pulls up and Randall is removed from the back of it. Rick and Shane walk him over to one of Hershel's sheds and lock him inside. Lottie quickly stands to see what's going on, telling Carl and Sophia that she'll tell them another one later.

Daryl helps guide Lottie over to where everyone has congregated around Shane's car and Rick tells them what happened.

"What we need is to get some information out of him, find out about his group, how many there are, if they might come lookin' for him."

"I'll make him talk." Daryl volunteers and Lottie glances up at him before adding, "I'll go with him. We can try a good cop, bad cop kind of thing." She smiles at Rick and he hesitates, looking at Daryl. Daryl looks down at Lottie for a moment before nodding once at Rick.

"Ok then, we'll see what you can do."

Lottie wanders into Hershel's house for a moment before joining Daryl walking towards the shed. "Don't look real scary with that damn brace on your knee." He tells her. "Don't get too close to him."

She smiles wide at Daryl and he rolls his eyes at her because she knows that's his gruff, irritated and sometimes rude way of saying "I don't want you to get hurt". And she's okay with that, she's always had a problem with being vulgar so she speaks his language. She tells him that and he scoffs at her again, shaking his head but says nothing as they enter the room. She leans herself against the wall and tells him, "By all means, gentlemen first."

Daryl closes the door behind them and starts pacing back and forth in front of the little guy who's apparently chained to the wall. Lottie frowns but watches.

"You gonna tell me all about that little group you were in, got it?" Daryl barks out at him and the kid struggles with his chains, "I already told them other guys, I told them everything!"

"That's not what they said, come on!" Daryl snarls, punching him in the face.

"I already told you guys everything, I swear!" He yells again and Daryl punches him in the face two more times, a sickening sound delivered with each blow that should really be making Lottie feel sick to her stomach but it's not. She's watching Daryl's huge, muscular arms work and she surprises herself when she draws in her next ragged breath at the sight of Daryl pacing some more.

"You ain't told me shit!" Daryl growls, grabbing the boy and slamming him against the wall of the shed. Lottie is putting out physical effort not to make any noises now.

"I hardly knew those guys! I met 'em on the road!" The kid whimpers and Daryl narrows his eyes at him, "How many in your group?"

The boy doesn't answer and Lottie was going to take over but Daryl slid his hunting knife out, nice and slow and Lottie wasn't sure she could even stand anymore. She breathed out in an awkward, ragged whimper but neither man seemed to notice.

"No no no no no, man, come on, please!" The kid whines and Daryl takes the knife and drives it down into the wood directly by Randall's leg. "HOW MANY" he growls and Randall stutters out, "Thirty, thirty! Thirty guys!"

"Where!" Daryl all but growls at him and Lottie subsequently forgot how to breathe.

The kid pauses, not replying and Daryl rips off the tape that's closing Randall's wound. He yells out in pain, "I don't know! I don't know! We were never in any place for more than a night!"

Daryl has stuck his knife into the wound now and is picking at it. Lottie's thoroughly embarrassed with herself by this point but is shamelessly staring at Daryl anyways.

"Scoutin'? Plannin' on stayin' local?" Daryl asks as he wiggles his knife in the wound and Randall is squirming almost as bad as Lottie is but he whimpers out, "I don't know, man! They left me behind!"

"You ever pick off a scab?" Daryl growls at him, leaning in close to his face and Lottie's pretty sure she's going to implode, "You start reaaaal slow at first," he continues and then yells, "But later you just gotta rip it off!"

"Ok! Ok! They have weapons! Heavy stuff! Automatics…" He trails off and Daryl continues to work the knife into the kid's exposed flesh.

"I didn't do anything!" he squeals, his face wet with tears by now.

Lottie steps forward at that, puts her hand on Daryl's shoulder, "I'll go." She says softly and Daryl just nods and takes a step back but doesn't go all the way to the wall like Lottie had done.

She gets down on her knees, careful to not put much weight on her right one. She stares Randall dead on, her enormous green/brown orbs especially wide as she looks into his brown/black ones. She stares for a long time without blinking, without moving and the kid starts to squirm.

"Hey, man, call her off." He whines out, looking to Daryl and when he looks back she's grinning at him and he cries out in shock. "You can hit me all you want, she's giving me the fuckin' creeps man, please!" Daryl just watches, saying nothing.

Lottie suddenly reaches one hand out and plants it by his leg, then the next like she's crawling towards him and she starts making little gasping noises and continues until she's right up by his ear, his head is turned as far away from her as he can get and he's closing his eyes, squirming in his chains. She whispers in his ear and he yells out, "No! No, god, no! Please, please, I'll tell you anything!" She pulls a surgical scalpel out of the pocket of her jacket and swiftly slams his head back into the wall with her left hand, bringing the scalpel up to his face with her right.

"But let's start with your pretty eyes instead." She murmurs and the boy screams for help, Daryl looks like he's trying not to snicker in the background.

"Tell her!" Daryl barks out.

"These people just took me in, okay! Not just men, there are women and children too, like you people! Please, please get that away from my face!" Lottie brings it closer. "You're not telling me everything." She hisses and he squirms away from her, already pressed against the wall.

"The guys go scavenging, we do, just the men, and one night we came up on this little campsite. A man and his two daughters, teenagers, really young, real cute… the daddy had to watch while the guys they just… and they didn't even kill him afterwards! They just made him watch.. and then just left him there. But I didn't touch those girls! I swear! I ain't like that!"

At that, Daryl pulls Lottie back and kicks him in the ribs, kicks him his affected leg, punches him in the face. Lottie stares in shock as Daryl beats the kid until she realizes that he's just angry, he's not even trying to get information anymore and then she hauls him off the boy. She checks to make sure she still has the scalpel and then she pushes Daryl to the door. She's on him as soon as he clicks the pad lock closed, his crossbow hanging awkwardly on his arm as she shoves him against the wall.

"Shit, I didn't know anyone could look so hot while beating the crap out of another person." She breathes as she bites his neck and kisses along his jaw. Daryl seems just as surprised as her but doesn't seem to mind, laying his crossbow down against the side of the shed and wrapping his arms around her waist, grabbing at her hips and pulling her towards him.

They make out for nearly ten minutes before she steps away, "Come on, we've got to...got to go tell the others." She takes his arm and he helps her to the campsite and lays it out for Rick and the others.

"Boy's got a gang. Thirty men, heavy artillery and they ain't lookin' to make friends. They roll through here, our boys are dead and our women… they're gonna wish they were." Lottie frowns up at him and he maintains eye contact with Rick but pulls her closer to him.

"What did you two do?" Carol asks softly, she looks disappointed and Lottie's taken aback.

"Had a little chat." Daryl answers and everyone is staring at both of them like they're animals. Not good. Lottie hasn't taken her pills today. She tries to ignore it and Daryl starts leading her back to his tent.

When they get across the field, he slams her up against the pile of bricks by his fire pit and she's happy to let him, she never thought she'd like being forced around, not after her dad and everything but then again she didn't think she would ever get turned on by watching a tall redneck beat the shit out of a young kid so stranger things have happened.

"Thought you'd hate me for beatin' him around like that, look at me the same way Carol did." Daryl mutters as he nips at her neck and pulls her jacket off. She moans and begins pulling his jacket off him, "I don't think I've ever see anything so hot, just the way you walk, way you fucking yelled at him, god damn…" She slurs out and he snorts, pulling at her tank top and replies with, "What about you, doing that creepy doll type shit, what the hell did you say to him anyways?" She helps him get her tank top off and then sets to work on the buttons of his shirt, "I told him," she gasps out, "that I could cut off his face and he wouldn't die as long as I sewed it back on, and I could cut out his eyes without killing him."

Daryl pulls back from her and stares at her, eyebrows creased together and for a moment she thinks he's going to tell her she's sick and send her on her crazy, merry way but then he steps forward again, pulling her undershirt off and grabbing her hips and he growls, "You're fucked up, woman." But keep sucking on her neck and then finally he leads her into his tent and zips it closed behind her.

Xxx

Lottie's resting in the tent still but Daryl is outside making more arrows when Dale walks up, Daryl groans in irritation.

"The point of me comin' out here was to get away from you people."

Dale smiles, "It's going to take a lot more than that, especially now that you've taken Lottie hostage too."

Daryl narrows his eyes at the old man, "What do you want with her?"

Dale chuckles at that, "Nothing, she's just a pleasure to have around."

Daryl glares at him, sliding his jacket on and picking up his crossbow, "A pleasure? What the hell you mean, a _pleasure_?"

Dale takes a step back and nods understandingly, "So that's why she's out here now, isn't it? I figured something was going on with you two."

Lottie pokes her head out of the tent to see what was going on. Dale spots her but Daryl has his back to her.

"She's _mine._ And I'm sick of people lookin' at her, that's why I brought her out here. She don't mind, she likes the stupid _flowers_." He gestures to the flowers that are growing near the edge of the field, not more than twenty feet from the tent. They're the same flowers he had gone with her to pick when he had first been injured. Lottie hadn't even noticed that he'd set up the camp near them instead of…well…anywhere else.

Dale chuckles again. "Don't worry, Daryl. She's all yours."

If anything that seems to get on Daryl's nerves even more because he shoots back, "Ain't that what I just said? I know she's mine."

"Then why are you acting so jelly?" Daryl turns around like he's going to punch whoever just said that and he's a little off balanced when he sees its Lottie.

He stands there looking like he might tip over so she gets on her tip toes and kisses his cheek. He looks annoyed but says nothing.

"Hi, Dale." Lottie says, giving the old man a secretive smile that he returns.

"I was hopin' to talk to you about that kid, Randall. Now Rick's plannin' to…execute him."

"Don't matter. Rick's just gonna look to Shane, Shane's not right and that's that. This group's broken. I'm better off just lookin' out for me and mine." Daryl answers and Lottie notices him grouping together some arrows, she frowns.

"You act like you don't care." Dale observes and Daryl fixes him with a stare before answering, "That's cause I don't."

"So, live or die, you don't care what happens to Randall?" Dale asks and Lottie's frowning even more.

"Nope." Daryl responds, annoyed.

"So why not stand with me, save his life, if you really don't care one way or another."

Daryl doesn't make eye contact, just shoves his arrows into his quiver and mutters, "Didn't peg you for a desperate son of a bitch." Lottie raises an eyebrow at that.

"Your opinion makes a difference!" Dale argues.

"Nobody's lookin' at me for nothin'." Daryl says and begins to walk away and Lottie gives an irritated huff.

"Carol does. Lottie does. I am right now. You care about what happens in this group. Torturing people? That isn't you. You're a decent man!" Dale adds and Lottie's feeling a little torn because the torturing was necessary.

"He didn't 'torture' that boy, he was rough on him but we needed that information, we couldn't have gotten it any other way, Dale, that much is true. What if we didn't know what we do now and we let him go, he comes back with his thirty men and kills all you boys, rapes the rest of us." There's fear in Lottie's eyes and Daryl glares.

"No one's touchin' you so shut up! You think I'm decent but it don't matter, what I say isn't going to change anything." Daryl adds and Dale shakes his head.

"You're both good people, Rick is a good person but you're right, Rick looks to Shane and Shane…. Shane is not…good."

"Why's that? 'Cause he killed Otis?" Daryl asks and Dale looks surprised, "Did he tell you that?"

"He showed up with some made up story and the dead guy's gun. Rick ain't stupid. He could figure it out he just didn't wanna. Like I said, this group's broken." Daryl glares at Dale for a moment and then makes to walk off. Lottie narrows her eyes.

"I'll stand by you, Dale. The world needs to have some humanity left in it." Lottie says and Daryl turns around.

"You serious? You were just talkin' about gettin' raped by his gang now you're gonna let him live?"

"He doesn't deserve to die for simply walking with the wrong group." She says, crossing her arms over her chest.

"We don't know that he didn't rape those girls! You think he's innocent? Think he just stood back and watched?" He yells at her and she moves towards Dale.

"I think I'll go back to camp with you, Dale, see if I can help you get some decent people on our side." Dale looks a little bewildered but he nods and takes Lottie's arm to help her walk.

"Fine! Go on then, see if I care! I won't be here when you come back!" Daryl snarls as she walks away.


	22. Chapter 22

_**This chapter came out a lot longer than originally intended.**_

_**Thanks for reading and please review! 3**_

_**Xxx**_

Xx

"What if it was one of us?" She says sternly, her eyes trained on Rick.

"What if it was one of us who accidentally left behind and their group found us. They torture us, interrogate us and we tell them 'yeah, I was in a group with about twenty people.' And they think to themselves that that we're a threat, and they KILL. US. Without ever really knowing that we're good people in a group together. They kills us just because they're scared, what about that?" She says, looking around the room and Dale, at her right, claps a hand on her back that nearly knocks her over.

Her arms are folded over her chest and she and Dale seem to be in this on their own. Daryl had so far only really remarked that he would be "just another mouth to feed" to which she eyed him and responded, "Is that what you think?"

Carol so far has only said that she wants to be left out of it which was both surprising and typical. Lottie had kind of thought she would want to be part of saving his life, but it didn't really surprise her that Carol wanted to avoid any sort of conflict.

"Can't we just do what's right?" Dale pleads and no one is willing to meet his eyes.

"What was the fucking point of saving him, Rick? Why did you bother if you were only going to bring him back here and kill him yourself?" Lottie questions.

"It's just not civilized." Dale adds and Andrea pipes up then, "Who says we're civilized?"

"If we're not civilized then we're all out for ourselves and that's it. Is that how we are now? We're all only looking out for ourselves? Willing to kill anyone who may possibly be a threat without actually knowing for sure? If that's how it is…well then the next time your son gets shot, Sherriff Grimes, that's not my problem is it? That's not Hershel's problem. The next time someone goes missing, why bother looking for them, that's not our problem. We're not civilized, there's no point. Glenn, you said we shouldn't put our people at risk, well ok then, we won't. We won't send them into the forest to look for lost kids, we won't put our people at risk by donating blood for one another, going into town to find one another. How about that?"

The room is silent.

"Isn't anybody else going to stand with us?" Dale asks, weakly. Lottie shakes her head and huffs out a laugh in disbelief.

"He's right." Andrea says suddenly, "We should try to find another way."

Rick acknowledges that and looks around, "Anybody else?" he asks, his voice hoarse.

The room is quiet and Rick shakes his head at Lottie and Dale apologetically.

"Are you all going to watch too? No, you're going to hide your heads in your tents and try to forget that you're slaughtering another human being. Well I won't be a part of it." Dale says finally and makes to leave, Lottie follows and on his way out of Hershel's house he stops and puts his hand on Daryl's shoulder, leans in close and shakes his head saying, "You're right, this group _is_ broken."

When Lottie passes Daryl she says nothing, doesn't even look in his direction, just reaches a hand out and shoves at him so pathetically that he doesn't even move.

Xxx

Daryl is, of course, part of the crew taking Randall to the barn to kill him.

Lottie is seated in the top part of the barn, waiting when they come in. She frowns seeing Daryl. Of course he's part of the crew but she fucking wished he wasn't. Why did he have to be part of it? She rolled over onto her back and stared at the roof of the barn. Well, why did she have to be in here watching it? _People are fucking weird._ She thinks and nods to herself before rolling back over onto her stomach to peer down.

"Would you like to stand or kneel?" Rick asks and Daryl must be in an irritated mood because he kicks Randall's feet out from under him and makes up his mind for him. She makes a mental note to stay out of his way for a while, even though she knows she won't.

The boy is sobbing, crying "No, god, please, please, no." And Lottie is ashamed to be part of these people.

Rick is holding the gun to his head, about to shoot him when little Carl walks in from the barn door. Lottie frowns, irritated, does Lori ever watch that fucking kid or does she just assume that zombies won't attack a child whose mother is stupid because it's just not fair?

"Do it, Dad, do it." The boy says and Rick is caught off guard, stunned.

"Take him away. Take him." Rick says suddenly, moving his gun away from Randall's forehead and Daryl jumps to action, hauling the kid up to his feet and walking him away.

Lottie clambers down from the top of the barn and slowly makes her way towards the main camp, her limp seems to be improving but she doesn't particularly want to push her luck with it at the moment. She sees light coming from the shed that Randall was in earlier and she knows its Daryl putting him back in there. Part of her wants to go to him, wants to wait outside for him and attach herself to him when he comes out but she doesn't. It might be the first time she's ever listened to one of her mental notes.

She's just passed the shed when screams erupt from the field and Daryl comes bolting out, he sees her and hesitates but she screams "GO! I'll catch up!" And he nods before running towards the field, carrying a lantern along with his crossbow.

Daryl made it there first and Lottie is limping as fast as she can when she hears him yelling "OVER HERE! HELP! OVER HERE!"

She gasps and runs faster, her right knee clicking in an unsettling way as she goes.

It's Dale. He's a bloody mess when she gets there, his stomach is ripped apart and Rick is screaming, "GET HERSHEL AND LOTTIE" and she puts her hand on Rick's shoulder.

"There's no way, Rick." She says softly and Rick screams, "NO, GET HERSHEL!"

Andrea is at Rick's side, whispering comforting things and Lottie is down on her knees too, ignoring the pain, Daryl is frowning deeply, chewing the inside of his cheek and pacing a little, keeping his eyes on Dale.

Hershel is there suddenly and he tells Rick that there's no way to get him to the house, and no way to do the surgery in the middle of the field. Lottie avoids making eye contact with anyone.

"He's suffering." Andrea says, gasping through her sobs.

Rick's pulled out his gun. Lottie closes her eyes.

"Do something!" Andrea cries and Rick shakes his head, Shane is standing next to him doing the same.

Rick raises his gun and Andrea turns away, crying heavier.

Dale is groaning but Rick doesn't seem to be able to pull the trigger, Lottie is getting ready to stand and do it herself, put him out of his misery, no need to fucking prolong it but Daryl goes around to Rick and takes the gun, getting down on his knees by Dale and whispering, "Sorry, brother."

Xxx

She sleeps in the RV with Andrea, Carol and Sophia that night. She curls next to Carol and they both cry until Lottie leaves to offer taking watch.

Xxx

The next day Andrea, Shane and Daryl are going out to search the fences for holes. If Daryl has noticed that her leg is doing worse than it was the day before he doesn't say anything and he doesn't object to her coming.

When they find a group of walkers, Andrea, Shane and Daryl fight them so aggressively, kicking at them once they're already dead, stomping their heads open, that they just seem like a group of angry people trying to make themselves feel better. That's pretty much exactly what they are, she realizes, as she steps back and swings her baseball bat into a zombie's head, hearing the sickening crack as it goes down.

Rick gives a more than decent speech at Dale's funeral. Daryl stands a little ways from the rest of the group, as always, and Lottie doesn't notice him staring at her for the duration of it. She seems to be the only one crying, even Andrea's eyes are dry.

Lottie's feeling shell shocked. Tired of people dying, a little dumb, she guesses.

_Why do you stay here? These people are stupid. Constantly getting hurt, dying. Leave them. You know where you can go you just need to find a map. I'm sure there's one in town…_

Lottie frowns and looks up to find Annie lying on top of the RV, Lottie checks around to see if anyone's watching her and then climbs up, lying on her belly next to her friend.

_Come on, you can't trust these people! They're all redneck trash! Can't keep an eye on their kids, executin' people, next thing ya know they're gonna light you on fire to try to get all of them impurities out 'a you!_

Lottie raises an eyebrow and looks to her right. Annie is also lying on her belly but she's now wearing a straw cowboy hat. Lottie rolls her eyes.

"I can't just leave… they need me…. And Daryl's here, I can't leave him." She whispers, on the ground below, the others are talking about moving into Hershel's house and moving their vehicles up and around it.

_Daryl doesn't care about you, Loretta, only I do. Do you think he would hesitate to leave you? Do you think he would save you if that was you out there, falling down cliffs like a dumbass instead of him? I don't think so. _

Lottie frowns. Looking over the side of the RV again to see Daryl standing by the truck, Rick is talking, saying something about Daryl and Glenn taking watch. She's not really sure.

"He cares about me. I know it… he just has a hard time showing it, he's not used to it…"

_He just has a hard time showing it? Do you hear yourself? That's the worst excuse since 'my mom said no'! If he cares about you then why isn't he taking care of you?_

Lottie stutters but answers, "He is taking care of me. Things are just confusing right now, a lot of stuff keeps happening. We're all busy."

_Sounds legit._ It's hissed somewhere way too close to Lottie's ear and when she looks to her right Annie's gone. Lottie peers over the side of the RV and then the other side looking for her but she doesn't see her friend. She climbs down.

Daryl looks at her but walks away to his bike and Lottie walks up to the house alone.

She helps Carol carry things inside the house until her leg starts hurting too much and then she sits on the front porch and tries not to make it obvious that she's watching Daryl.

"He knows you're lookin', you know." Comes the amused voice from beside her and Lottie laughs. Carol brings her a glass of water, "Thought you could use some. I almost never see you eat or drink, I swear you and Daryl would both die if I didn't force food down your throats."

Lottie laughs again, "We just don't think about it much, I guess. There are more important things to think about… you kind of forget normal things." She sighs and Carol is frowning at her.

"What's going on with you two? He's starin' at you and you're starin' at him but you won't make eye contact, won't touch each other. It's breakin' MY heart just watchin' you two."

Lottie gives a wry, little laugh and sighs again, "Nothing, really. I think I just blew it out of proportion… The whole argument about Randall, whether he should live or die… some of the things Daryl said made me feel like he wouldn't care if I lived or died, if I stayed with the group. It was like he kept going back and forth. "She's my girl" and then "No one matters, I don't care about anyone but myself". I wish he'd make up his mind."

Carol laughs and Lottie's surprised, she raises her eyebrows at her friend, waiting for an explanation.

"He cares, he clearly cares. Daryl Dixon would not call anyone 'his girl' if he didn't care. Do not tell him I told you this, he'd probably never speak to either of us ever again if you did but; I think he's scared. He doesn't know if you care about him the way he cares about you so he doesn't want to say it in case he's wrong! He doesn't want to be rejected!"

Lottie finds herself smiling at that, Carol has a way of seeing Daryl as a shy, little boy and Lottie finds it cute. Her smile fades a little though, "How do I know for sure though? That he really cares about me? Really likes me?" Carol is in deep thought for a few moments before shaking her head, "It would probably be something special, something that shows he's thinking of you even if he won't say it."

Lottie's eyebrows knit together and her mouth forms an "O" and then she breaks out into a grin, "You haven't seen my little stuffed pig by any chance, have you?" She asks Carol and Carol laughs as she makes her way back into the house, "Not since the last three times you asked, no!"

Lottie stands and starts making her way to the shed that Randall is being kept in, where Daryl is busily hammering boards on the roof.


	23. Chapter 23

_**For those of you getting confused, she doesn't always understand that her hallucinations are hallucinations. She isn't always aware. Even a hallucination like Annie that has proved itself over and over again to be fake sometimes fools Lottie into thinking she's real and Lottie knows her as her oldest friend, this will be explained sometime in the near future.**_

_**And no, Annie can't know things that Lottie doesn't just things that Lottie doesn't realize. Such as, you saw your friend wearing a green shirt today but you can't remember what color their shirt was later, your subconscious still remembers though because you already know it, you just can't remember.**_

_**Thanks for reading, please review 3**_

_**Xxx**_

Xx

Lori intercepts her on her way to the shed and asks if she'll help her carry some of the heavier boxes.

"I don't want to hurt the baby." She says smiling and Lottie forces herself to smile back while Annie comes around the front of the truck and rolls her eyes.

_Hurt the baby? Let me tell you something, lady if the baby is hurt its because you're a god damn idiot not because you carried a ten pound box from the car to the house. By the way when was the last time you saw your son? Because yesterday I swear I saw him rooting through Daryl's things and then wandering out into the woods. Sure am glad you're having another kid that you won't watch._

Lottie's eyes bugged as she gave her friend a look and hissed at her to shut up but she stopped to think, Carl was going through Daryl's things? She frowned.

_No, he doesn't have your stupid little pig doll, Loretta. He didn't go inside Daryl's tent, he just went through the bags on the side of his motorcycle._

Lottie frowns and turns to ask Annie a question but she's already wandered off somewhere else. Lottie rolls her eyes and finishes unloading the truck. She's just coming out to the porch when she sees Daryl run off somewhere, Rick standing on the porch previously next to Daryl and Shane walks up. He says something about Carl to Rick as Lottie comes out onto the porch and she sees Shane hand Rick Daryl's gone, Lottie frowns. Annie was right.

She steps forward and fixes Rick with a stare, her mouth slanting sideways and upwards in a displeased way. He licks his lips and looks around him awkwardly, "Lottie, did you hear all that?" he asks awkwardly.

"That's Daryl's gun. Annie was right, don't you and Lori ever watch your damn kid? He went through Daryl's stuff and STOLE his gun, you're concerned about the fact that he wandered out into the woods, and I get that, I understand but you're completely missing the fact that he STOLE something from someone. Your kid is walking all over everyone and you and Lori are so wrapped up in yourselves that you don't notice."

Annie is jeering and prompting Lottie to say much harsher stuff in the background but Lottie ignores her. She takes a step towards Rick, "You're doing an amazing job as leader of this group, I know you're trying your hardest and I'm sorry, I don't expect you to be able to watch your son every damn second while you're trying to make decisions and keep everyone safe but honestly, what is your wife so busy doing that she doesn't notice that her son has stolen Daryl's gun and gone off in the woods? Because last I checked, Carol did most of the cooking, and Lori never takes watch. Just. I'm not sure, Rick. You're a good leader but this isn't the best group." She steps forward and he's nodding, he almost looks like he's going to cry, like he's at the end of his rope and she reaches an arm out, hesitantly and puts it on his shoulder. Real.

She brings him forward and hugs him for a while, he's awkward at first, stiff as though he's not sure if he should be hugging her or not but then he hugs back and they stay that way for a while, her eyes are shut and she doesn't notice Daryl come walking back around the house. They finally break the hug and he tells her "Thank you, I didn't even know how much I needed that until now. Here, take Daryl's gun, I need to go have a talk with my boy."

She smiles and nods at him and watches Daryl move things around in the back of the truck, TDog approaches him and offers him Dale's old gun.

"Wish I knew where the hell mine is." Daryl says and Lottie comes down the porch steps at that, capturing both Daryl and TDog's attention.

"Wish I knew where my pig is." She says, giving Daryl an amused look, her lips slightly crooked, growing into a smile. Daryl stares at her for a long while and TDog is watching the exchange looking curious and amused.

"Here, take your damn pig." Daryl says finally and pulls the little beanie pig out of the inside of his jacket and tosses it to her, she fumbles trying to catch it and smacks her arm on the side of the truck. Daryl snorts and TDog snickers and she's giggling insanely because, fuck, funny bone.

She walks over to Daryl and pulls his gun out of her jacket pocket, he stares at it. "You took my gun?" he asks, accusingly and she pushes her mouth to one side of her face again at him.

"No, Carl must have gotten bored. He went through your shit yesterday, decided to take this. And how dare you get upset with me for having it when you stole my pig!" She pouts at him and he rolls his eyes, TDog is outright laughing in the background.

"Why'd you have her pig, man?" He chuckles and Daryl growls at him to shut up.

"You thought it'd be funny to take him or what?" She asks, frowning. "No." Daryl replies.

"No? No what? No it wouldn't be funny? Or No that's not what you took him?" She prompts and he looks away, annoyed, "No!" He snarls again. "Just no?" She's getting annoyed too now, unsurprisingly.

"I took him because he smells like you! And you didn't sleep in my tent last night like you were s'posed to! Now I'm takin' this stupid kid out with Rick and I was just gonna take him with me! Ok? Where the hell were you last night anyways?!"

Lottie gapes at him, her mouth hanging wide open and she's staring wide eyed and awe struck when Rick walks up.

"Ready to go?" Rick asks and Daryl just grunts, his eyes still on Lottie but TDog volunteers to go get Randall.

"Daryl Dixon." Lottie says quietly, shaking her head and then she presses him up against the truck and pins him the best she can, kissing him firmly on the lips and sneaking her pig back into the inside of his jacket while she's at it.

"Well, I'll be damned. You two make a real cute couple." Rick chuckles, he's smiling at them good naturedly when Lottie backs up from Daryl, but Daryl just grabs her to make her stay next to him and growls, "Yeah, I saw you huggin' her, hoss, I told you she was _mine_." Rick shakes his head, still smiling and Lottie scoffs and shakes her head as well, Daryl still clinging to her waist when TDog comes jogging back up to the truck, missing Randall.

Xxx

They're all peeking around the area, around the shed, behind Hershel's house, the barn, looking for anywhere Randall could be hiding. Daryl keeps her close to him and she has her gun drawn.

"It was secured from the outside." Hershel puts in and Lottie stares for at the shed. Something isn't sitting right with her. That kid didn't seem tough enough to get out of his handcuffs and shimmy out the damn roof, not with his leg as fucked as it was. She doubts she would even be able to do that and her wrists are a lot smaller than his.

"RICK! RICK! He's gone! He's got my gun!" Shane comes out of the edge of the woods, screaming.

"Are you okay?" Carol asks, holding Sophia tightly to her side.

"I'm fine, little bastard just snuck up and clocked me in the face." Lottie looked up at Daryl, his eyes are narrowed, fixed on Shane and she frowns.

Rick starts shouting orders, telling Glenn and Daryl to come with him and Shane to go scope out the woods for Randall. Lottie frowns.

"I don't want you to go." She whispers to him and he stares down at her, he looks like he's not sure what to do.

"I know it's selfish, I know you have to go, so go, I just don't…want you to. Something doesn't feel right. I'm getting nervous." She says shyly and he nods at her, stands there for an extra moment like he might hug her or something but instead starts walking towards Rick and the others.

"I expect you to bring my pig back!" She yells and then follows the others to the house.

Xxx

Lottie keeps Carl and Sophia entertained for a while in one of the upstairs bedrooms. She tells them more stories and even tries to relay a musical she once watched to them complete with the songs but after a while it's dark and none of the boys are back and she and Carl are both obviously antsy.

Carl peeks out the window with a set of binoculars.

"You see them?" She asks quietly from where she's sitting on the floor, braiding Sophia's hair.

"No." he says, shaking his head and Lottie frowns.

"I'm gonna…go to the bathroom." He says suddenly and Lottie narrows her eyes at him.

"Sophia, will you go downstairs please? I need to talk to Carl, just… stay close to your mom, okay?"

Sophia nods and heads downstairs and Lottie stands, looking down at Carl.

"Firstly, do not lie to me. I hate it. Secondly, if you're going to go out there to try to look for your dad, I'm coming with you."

Carl is bearing an expression somewhere between "oh shit you caught me" and "yes, we're gonna go do something adventurous and probably get into some shit" and Lottie huffs out a laugh in spite of the worry on her mind.

"Do you have a gun?" He nods his head, yes, his dad gave him a gun.

She nods back at him and they carefully sneak out of the back door of the house.

She's limping but not all too badly and she's keeping up with him fine.

They can hear yelling from a distance and he starts to run but she grabs the back of his sweater, "No, you have to stay with me." She commands and tries to hurry her limp up. They come upon Rick kneeling over Shane's body. He's obviously dead. She swallows, watches. Carl rushes ahead and she lets him this time, Rick notices him and starts shaking his head.

"What are you doing out here?" She hears him Rick say and she hurries forward just as Carl raises his gun, her eyes widen and she hurries forward in time to see Carl shoot Shane, who's gotten back up. She gasps.

"Rick!" She yells and he spots her finally.

"There's more, they're coming!" She yells and points to the edge of the forest, her eyes wide, and god for the first time she hopes that she is hallucinating.


	24. Chapter 24

Daryl enters the house and immediately scans the crowd of people in Hershel's leaving room.

"Rick and Shane ain't back yet? Where's Lottie?" He asks to no one directly.

"No, Lottie… I haven't seen her in a while actually." Carol answers, Sophia pipes up then, "She said she was talkin' to Carl because he was worried about his dad."

Daryl nods and looks around again as though he's expecting her to magically appear at the sound of her name.

"Well, I heard a shot." Daryl adds and Lori looks at him, eyes wide.

"Maybe they found Randall?"

"We found him, he was a walker." Daryl says. "Did you find the walker that bit him?" Hershel asks and Glenn shakes his head, "The weird thing was he wasn't bit."

"His neck was broke." Daryl adds, "The thing is, his and Shane's tracks are right on top of each other, Shane ain't no tracker so he didn't go after him. They were together."

Lori steps close to Daryl and he makes a face looking down at her. "Will you please go out there and find Rick and Shane and find out what the hell is going on?" She begs him and he nods, "You got it."

Carol walks with him to the door and he leans down and asks her, "Find Lottie for me, ok? Make sure she's… just find her." Carol smiles and nods at him and he and Glenn walk outside.

Xxx

"Go! GO!" Rick hisses and pushes Carl ahead, Lottie limps as fast as she can behind them.

"We have to get to the house, warn the others." Carl says and Lottie appreciates his priorities but Rick shakes his head, "We'll never get through that, okay, Carl, stay close, Lottie, if you can try to stay behind him, cover his back." She gives a wry smile, "I'll try, but I'm not going very fast with my leg, don't hesitate to leave me behind, Rick, he's more important. You know it." Rick looks broken but nods once and then they're running.

Walkers are grabbing at them and lurching forward to try to get to them but they're sparse enough for them to get to the barn and by then Lottie's knee feels like it's being shredded from the inside out but her adrenaline is pumping and her knee is the last thing on her mind.

They bar the door to the barn but it's not going to hold for long Lottie pulls her gun out of her shorts and turns the safety off.

Xxx

"Carl's gone! He was supposed to be upstairs with Lottie neither of them are there! I'm not leaving without my boy." Lori says, they're all on the porch of the house, Glenn had noticed the huge herd of walkers coming towards them.

"Lottie's not there?" Daryl growls out and Lori shakes her head. He growls in frustration and slams his crossbow on the rail of the porch.

"Don't you ever keep a damn eye on your kid!" He shouts at Lori and she flinches but says nothing. Carol tugs at Lori's hand.

"Come on, we'll go look again, maybe he's somewhere else. Maybe they're somewhere else." Carol adds, shooting Daryl a look and nodding at him once before leading Lori back into the house.

Andrea brings out the bag of guns and they pass them around but Daryl doesn't even glance. He's focused on the walkers. There's gotta be over two hundred in the fields, probably even more that he can't see. And damn it where's Lottie? Girl pops her damn knee out and she still won't stay in one place.

"We'll kill as many as we can, and then we'll use the cars to lead the rest of them off the farm." Andrea is saying, pushing a gun into the waistband of her jeans and then Daryl's looking away again, trying to clear his head.

"I'm staying. Feel free to go." Hershel says simply.

"You serious?"

"It's my farm, I'll die here." Hershel says, cocking a shot gun and Daryl shakes his head before jumping over the railing of the porch.

"Alright, as good a night as any. Keep an eye out for Lottie." He shoots back at Andrea and Glenn and they nod but he walks away.

Xxx

They light the barn on fire and they're rushing to get out the top of it. She can hear gunshots coming from just outside and she's scared, she's really scared, there are so many, oh fuck there are _too many and she's not even sure if Daryl got out of the fucking woods_.

But then she hears a motorcycle and she breathes out a ragged, barely there little laugh because she knows that's him, knows he's alive at least for now.

The walkers in the barn are burning up just below them and they need to get out of there before the whole damn thing burns down.

The RV comes up to the side of the barn, just on the side of the little awning, she thinks Hershel's son is driving it but she's not really sure, everything is going fast.

She helps Carl jump to the awning and then scrabbles over herself, somewhere in the back of her mind she can feel the bone of her knee moving badly and pain shooting up and down her leg but she ignores it.

They jump onto the top of the RV and Rick and Carl go down the back ladder, Lottie slides herself down the side of it, using the tire to step down to the ground and then running around to the back, she takes a moment to try to scope out the land for Daryl but there are more walkers and she doesn't have a chance, she wishes she brought her fucking bat, not like she knew a fucking army of dead people were approaching though.

Whoever was driving the RV was eaten in helping Rick, Lottie and Carl get down from the barn and she silently whispers her thanks and apologies before they begin racing for the house. Rick and Carl are running towards the woods, planning to go around the house and come out the other side.

"I'm going the other way, I'm running straight for the house, I think I'll be ok but if I'm not, well good luck!" She yells and then she's running for the house, straight up sprinting, using her leg although it's fine because by this point she's pretty sure there's more adrenaline in her blood than water and she's not paying attention to the pain or how much it might cost her later.

Hershel appears to be the last one standing, she can see him from the distance and hurries towards him when she sees the women running down the steps on the other side of the house. She can hear screams, someone's been grabbed but she doesn't know who, she sees Carol cornered by a few walkers and she's racing towards her to help –

"MOM! MAMA!" She stops, where, where, where, where, "MAMA!" Her right, she sees little Sophia, Andrea is getting out of a blue truck and she looks like she's headed for Carol so Lottie races for the right, shooting three walkers and grabbing Sophia's hand, "Are you bit?" Sophia shakes her head, "STAY WITH ME." She pulls Sophia towards the truck just as it starts pulling away,

"NO NO NO NO NO! She grips Sophia tightly and lifts her, "TELL DARYL I LOVE HIM, TELL DARYL" She screams to Sophia and tosses her into the bed of the truck as gently as she can and then it's gone. Shit shit shit shit _sHIT._

She shoots a few more walkers, looking around her for others. Looking for Daryl. She spots Andrea waving her arms at a car pulling away but they don't see her.

"ANDREA!" Andrea runs towards her, shooting a walker as she comes. "They're gone, they're all gone, we have to run, can you run?" She cries urgently and Lottie nods, searching the ground for the bag of guns until she finds it, pulling it onto her shoulder as she and Andrea run into the woods.

They're not very far and there are tons coming after them, "Andrea, usually I would suggest we stick together because there are strength in numbers but there's just too many, I think we have a better chance if we split up." Lottie gasps out, and Andrea looks scared but nods. Lottie's sure she looks the same if not more terrified. She pulls the bag of guns open and looks through it, taking two more hand guns and an extra clip out. "I'm taking these, everything else in there you can keep. Good luck, okay? Good luck."

Andrea looks like she wants to fight Lottie about letting her keep everything else in the bag but she doesn't, she just nods, "Good luck, Lottie, thanks." Lottie turns, ready to run and then turns back for a second, "If you find the others, tell Daryl… tell Daryl…."

"I'll tell him." Andrea smiles and nods again before beginning to run and Lottie nods back, running in the other direction.


	25. Chapter 25

She unties her hair, she hadn't realized how long it had gotten. She's panting, there's a stitch in her side and she feels like she's going to throw up. Annie is with her.

She starts cutting off pieces of her hair with her hunting knife as she runs. She's not sure where she's going but she's leaving a trail. Her blonde hair is easy to see even in the darkness.

She keeps running.

She's trying to outrun them all, rarely use her guns. Their almost counterproductive, killing one or two and attracting dozens more, she's hoping she can run far enough from them to crawl up a tree and then maybe she can hide out there for a while, until its safer.

Annie keeps telling her to go towards the highway because maybe they can hotwire a car there, maybe one of the cars has a map so they can find her mother's house. No, of course her mother's not alive but it's a big house, built for Lottie, not her mother, she was just staying in it at the time. That house is the reason she came to Georgia.

She keeps running.

She cuts off another thick lock of hair and lets it drop to the ground.

Maybe the highway is a good idea but she's lost by now, no idea which way the highway is. Annie tells her to just keep going straight, that's how she got to Hershel's farm in the first place, straight shot from the highway so just keep heading straight.

Lottie hopes she's right but there's no way of being sure. How long has she been running for now? She doesn't even want to know. There are definitely less walkers now though, she's glad she hasn't been using her gun. Andrea had, she could hear the shots for a long while, maybe that was the reason the walkers weren't on her ass as much. She glances around. She sees only one walker and he doesn't seem to have spotted her and Annie yet.

She cuts off another chunk of hair and then hoists herself up into a nearby tree, she pulls herself up higher and higher until she can barely see the ground through the dying leaves. She curls up on the sturdy branch and lets her head loll back.


	26. Chapter 26

Carol is sobbing onto his back, he can feel her shaking. They narrowly avoid more walkers as they make their way back to the highway back to where they had lost Sophia. He hadn't even realized Sophia wasn't with Carol, hadn't really thought about it when she came running to him and jumped on the back of his bike but after feeling her sob for a while he realized it.

They make their way onto the highway, going between the abandoned cars and for a minute he isn't sure that anyone else is even here. He's frustrated and annoyed that they didn't have damn plan for this, he's annoyed that Lottie fucking took off without telling anyone where she was going, probably just to watch Lori's piece of shit little kid.

It's a while before they get back to the highway and the sun's come up. Carol's sobbing is making him feel sick and he's feeling less and less sure that anyone will even be there but then he can see Rick, just barely, and Hershel and- Carl. Maybe Lottie's with them.

Carol jumps off the bike as soon as he's shut it off and she finds Sophia with Lori in TDog's truck.

"Sophia!" She cries out and the little girl goes running to her mom. Lori goes running to Carl.

"Lottie?" Daryl asks, loud, looking around the group at all the people hugging and wishing she was there holding onto him, probably mumbling about how scared she was in his ear. TDog shakes his head and Daryl's eyes narrow at him.

"She saved Sophia. Barely saw her in the rear mirror. She picked her up and tossed her into the back of the truck but I had to go, man, they were all over. If I had waited we wouldn't have made it, I'm sorry."

"Andrea saved me and then I didn't see where she went, maybe they're together." Carol says.

"I'll go back." Daryl goes for his bike but Rick stops him, "You can't. Lottie's not there, Daryl. Neither is Andrea. They're either somewhere else…or they're dead and there's no way to find them."

"I can't just leave her." Daryl grits out, teeth ground together.

"We have to keep moving. I'm sorry."


	27. Chapter 27

_**Holy crap so my story has gotten over 500 more views since my last few updates but I got absolutely no reviews and I'm like but WHY that was such a big chunk of plot I just handed you guys like I thought I'd be flooded with reviews for it. wHY.**_

_**Thanks for reading though and please review if you can spare a moment! 3**_

_**Xxx**_

Xx

She wheezed, clutching her side and hurrying to her car. She wasn't carrying the extra weight well and making trips out to the woods or anywhere really was becoming more and more hazardous for her. She couldn't run for more than five minutes without feeling downright exhausted and she was constantly tired even when she did nothing but drive. She knew she wasn't getting enough food but even scavenging stores the way she used to was getting to be too difficult for her and she couldn't just kill squirrels and things the way Daryl did. No. No no no no no no. Don't think about him. Don't think about his name, don't think about his face, don't think about the way he walks, talks, breathes, _feels._

_Why are you still hung up on him? You should be searching for the house. Even with your sense of direction you should have found it by now._

Lottie frowns at the girl sitting in the passenger seat of the little, blue Prius. "Let's not forget that you once got so lost on a trip to Disneyland that you drove for five hours only to end up back on your own street. Besides I've lived my whole life in another fucking state, I don't know up from down here…" She frowns at the map lying in Annie's lap and tries to focus on where she is.

"Maybe if I get to a highway I can figure out where to go…" Annie frowns but nods.

_Just keep going straight, if I'm right we should be coming up on… Manchester? Lagrange? Actually, I'm kind of lost now too…_

Lottie scoffs, "Well thanks, you're a lot of help."

She keeps driving when she sees a turn off to a correctional facility. She frowns. Correctional Facility. She slows to a stop in front of the sign and closes her eyes.

Correctional facility, about 1,000 prisoners at the most in Georgia. Never all out in the yard at the same time. Separated and sectioned off cell blocks dividing prisoners. In all probability only two hundred prisoners out in the yard at the most. Potential of food great, potential of water and working generators good. Number of guards and prison workers-unknown.

She frowns.

_You should just go for the house, Loretta, you're not in the shape to be taking down so many walkers anymore. Your knee is still fucked too._

"You're forgetting that I don't know where the fucking house IS, or I would be there right now! I've been driving around hopelessly for nearly what? Six months? Five and a half? I don't even know, sleeping in the back of this car, thinking I'd be killed in the middle of the night! You know how many times I've put this fucking gun up to my head, Annie, I can't do this anymore, I need to find somewhere to stay even if it's only for a week, two weeks and then I can start trying again. Besides if we can find out exactly where this prison is on the map or maybe find another, better map in the prison then I have a better shot at finding the house. Are you with me on this or not?"

_You're a fucking idiot, but yes, I'm with you, of course I'm with you. I'm the only one who's ever been with you._

Lottie sighs "I know."

She shifts the car out of park and turns onto the road leading towards the prison and then parks a little ways away.

Annie gives her a look.

"We have to walk from here, I'm not pulling all the way up to the damn gate just to find that there are too many walkers, I'm surrounded and so is my car, ok? Or worse yet there are actually living people there and they see my car, and come attack me, torture me, something.

Annie rolls her eyes but gets out of the car. The car door doesn't make a noise when she slams it shut, Lottie notices and tries to pretend she doesn't but it's too late. Annie's gone.

"Damn it. I don't want to be alone." She whispers to herself, peering in the car's side mirrors, checking her pointless eyeliner and glaring at the bags under her eyes.

She ignores how much her feet ache and the fact that they're probably swollen as well as the fact that she's feeling like she's going to puke-again-and settles her baseball bat over her shoulder, pulling her handgun out and turning the safety off before heading towards the prison gates.


	28. Chapter 28

_**WE ARE NOW ENTERING SEASON THREE SO I SHOULD PROBABLY TAG THE SHIT OUT OF THIS FOR SPOILERS!**_

_**Please Review! and as always, thanks for reading! 3**_

_**Xxx**_

Xx

The others have noticed Daryl's steady withdrawal from the group, he keeps to himself even more than usual and he even ignores Carol and Sophia when they try to talk to him. He's a lot harsher, meaner, even if he doesn't mean to be, in fact, the group isn't sure he's noticed himself change. When he talks it comes out quieter but gruffer and he hardly ever bothers making eye contact.

He was angry after Lottie went missing, he's still angry and he takes it out on everyone and everything else. Carol tried to talk to him about it once but he just snarled, "I ain't about to sit down and share my damn feelings, I ain't no girl." And she stopped asking about it after that.

Now that they've found live prisoners locked in the cafeteria of the prison, Daryl's made it clear that his outlook is "kill them or leave them to die" even If he hasn't said so.

"Get down on your knees." He growls at the prisoner in front of him, aiming his crossbow at the inmate's head. His finger is itching at the trigger. He just wants him dead, threat gone, shit done. That simple, but there are only two prisoners left and it almost doesn't matter if they live. They'll probably be dead within the month.

Rick comes back and points his gun at the prisoner's head and Daryl steps back, lowers his crossbow to give his arm a rest.

"DARYL LETS END THIS, NOW." Rick yells suddenly and Daryl's all too happy to oblige, grabbing the black prisoner's head and putting a knife up to his neck.

The prisoner that Rick is now aiming his gun at is begging for his life, near sobbing. Daryl wants to shoot him in the face.

Rick ends up letting the last two prisoners live, opening up a cleared cell block for them, Daryl shows them in, feeling tired and annoyed.

"Oh man," one of the prisoners mumbles after Rick shoves him into the cell block, "I… I knew these guys…" Daryl glances at him, licks his lips. People die. It happens, it happened before the end of the world, just happens more now.

"Let's go." Rick says, nodding towards Daryl and Daryl nods back.

"You're just going to leave us here? That's sick." The other prisoner says suddenly and Rick shakes his head, "We're locking down the cell block. This part of the prison is yours, take it or leave it." He exits the room, nodding at Daryl once more to follow him.

Daryl starts towards the door and then stops, looks at the prisoners. "You think this is sick? You don't wanna know what's outside. Sorry about your friends, man, but we've all fucking lost people."

They get back to their cell block and everyone's excited, Hershel's alive. Daryl had almost forgotten the old man was even hurt. He sighs.

"I'm gonna go scan the field." He says shortly to Rick and Rick nods and Daryl's almost to the door when Rick calls him back.

"Take Glenn with you, just to be safe." Daryl groans, "I don't need no wingman!"

Glenn doesn't look like he particularly even wants to go.

"I don't care, I don't want anyone going anywhere by themselves at the moment."

Daryl glares at him and steps forward but then shakes his head and slams open the door to the outside, Glenn jogging to catch up to him.

"Look, I…I didn't want to-" Glenn starts trying to say but Daryl shoots him a glare that shuts his mouth pretty damn quick.

They walk in silence until they get down by the gate to the field and then Glenn speaks up again; "Is that…is that a walker?" He's looking pointedly towards the gate where they had all come in and already raising his heavy piece of metal. Daryl squints at it for a moment, "Must be, no person walks like that unless their leg is broke."

They pull open the gate and shut it behind them before making their way across the field.

"Must be a hole in the fence somewhere, take this one down and then find it, seal it up again." Daryl says, raising his crossbow and getting the walker in his sight, he stops walking when he has it in his view, perfect head shot, it hasn't noticed him or Glenn yet, It's staring at the group's cars parked up by the gate, one of its legs is bent awkwardly inward and the other seems to be holding it up. It looks like it could be a little girl in a big hoodie, she has short, choppy blonde hair and Daryl's finger is on the trigger-

"You think anymore got in?" Glenn asks, still walking while checking out the right side of the gates, crashing straight into Daryl.

The arrow speeds towards the target, slightly off, grazing the side of the walker's head just barely.

"God damn it, stay out of my way!" Daryl growls as the walker hits the ground and-

Xxx

"Fuck me! Jesus, Joseph, Mary and the camel, this is NOT the way to get a girl. Fuck!" Daryl's eyes widen, he surges forward.

She's on the ground but sitting up, hand clutching onto her head, honestly she had an inkling that they might be there but she didn't want to get her god damn hopes up, but of course Daryl has to shoot her with a bloody arrow like it's his version of a secret handshake.

The world's a little blurry by this point and she can feel blood rushing down the side of her face when Daryl comes running up to her.

"Lottie?" He asks, squinting at her. She squints back. Reaches out a hand and grabs his leg, he kicks her off immediately, "Say something, woman!" He barks and she flinches, at least she knows he's real, but still.

"I've been listening to the same Pink cd for the past what 6 months now and if I have to hear about her drinking problems for one more second I might just develop some of my own, please save me." She mumbles out, her head lolls back a little and she supports herself with her hands in the dirt.

"And stop fucking shooting me, I'm lucky you seem to have such poor aim."

His eyes are searching her, scanning her for some reason and then he finally huffs out a tiny relieved little laugh and then he slings his crossbow onto his back and scoops her up.

"My aim's perfect, you just always get lucky." He mumbles and she snorts at him leaning her head into his chest, putting a hand on her stomach.

"Damn, girl, you got heavy." He grunts and she lets her head loll back. "I could really go for some starbucks, java chip with like six shots of espresso, hold the whip cream, okay?" she murmurs. He chuckles, "You would go to fuckin' starbucks."

"It's Lottie! Go tell Rick!" he barks out at Glenn and Lottie's head crashes back against his chest.

"Of course I like Starbucks if you don't like Starbucks you're either lying or you're a demon, starbucks was like my favorite part of the world back when- God, I'm so tired, Daryl, I missed you so much, is this real?"

Her vision starts blurring as she nuzzles her head against his chest and he can swallows a lump in his throat, "Yeah, baby, I got your stupid pig too, you don't have to worry no more. I'm taking care of you."


	29. Chapter 29

_**I'm getting absolutely zero reviews. Are you guys bored with this? :/**_

_**Please review and thanks for reading 3**_

_**Xxx**_

Xx

She's aware that the sun is no longer beating down on her face and she's being laid down on something moderately soft and then she hears a voice she didn't think she'd ever hear again, "You don't think she'd be more comfortable in one of the cells, Daryl?" She opens her eyes, squinting.

"Oh, she's awake! Lottie? You okay? How you feeling?" It's Carol and Lottie smiles, she's never been so happy to see other human beings.

"About as good as I look." Lottie says, her voice hoarse, grinning madly. Carol laughs with relief and her eyes tear up, she grabs Lottie and squeezes her tightly, Lottie squeezes her back, trying to move her stomach away from Carol's tight grip. When Carol lets go there are tears streaming down her cheeks, she wipes at them hurriedly and looks between Lottie and Daryl for a moment before asking, "Do you need anything? Is there anything I can get you? You hungry?"

"Oh, God yes, I haven't eaten in…nearly a week I think, I've been starving." Lottie replies.

"You sure as hell don't look like it." Daryl puts in and Lottie glares at him, "That's mean." She pouts.

"Not my fault, you got a pretty good gut goin' there, how the hell you say you've been starvin'?"

"Fuck you, you're not even glad that I'm alive are you?" She laughs at him and he shakes his head at her. She awkwardly makes her way to her feet and he stands up straight from kneeling.

She walks slowly towards him, stops just barely in front of him, and then wraps her arms around him, tugging him towards her and smashing her face into his chest, breathing him in and to her surprise he puts his arms around her as well, squeezing her to him. They stay like that for a long time until Carol comes back with a plate of tuna and crackers. Lottie pulls away from him and then catches a whiff of the tuna and makes a face, clamping her hand over her mouth, she spots a trash can at the entrance to what seems to be a guard booth and she runs for it, sliding onto her good knee and dry heaving into the trash can several times before just coming up with a little bile. Carol runs to her and puts a soothing hand on her back but Daryl hangs back and does nothing, just stares.

"What's wrong? What was it? Is the tuna spoiled?" Carols is asking and Lottie is panting and shaking her head before standing up and walking slowly to Daryl's little mattress on the middle of the floor.

"Please, take a cell, don't sleep out here in the middle of nowhere, I know it's Daryl's but he can man up and join you in a room, he has the keys anyways." Carol says giving Daryl a look and he raises his eyebrows at her. "I didn't do nothin', just laid her down, never said she couldn't go in a cell." He mutters and Carol just rolls her eyes, leading Lottie into the cell closest to Daryl's little cot and helping her lie down. "I'm sorry, I'm just so exhausted lately…" He hears Lottie mumble and then Carol comes back out, arms crossed over her chest, looking worried.

"She's paler than a sheet and throwin' up, Daryl, she's sick."

Daryl nods and folds his arms over his chest. "What am I supposed to do about it?"

Carol gapes at him for a moment and then shakes her head, "I'm glad she's back but I'm starting to wonder why she even bothers with you, actin' the way you have been." She walks down the stairs to rejoin the group and Daryl contemplates before heading down the stairs after her. He grabs Rick by the shoulder when he sees him.

"What was Lori like when she first got pregnant?"

Rick looks startled and then he takes a step back, checks in Hershel's room one more time to look in on everyone and then walks a little ways away. Daryl follows.

"Is this about Lottie?" He asks, tilting his head a little and nodding to prompt Daryl.

"Yeah, man, Carol said she's sick, she threw up and she's a lot heavier than before, back the farm I could have tossed her in the air with one hand."

Rick chuckles a little and peeks behind Daryl to make sure no one is listening to them.

"First of all, if she is pregnant than you don't want to say that to her, sure fire way to get to the dog house."

"Shit, man. If that's true I think I'm already livin' in the doghouse." Rick chuckles again and shakes his head.  
"She asleep?"

"Think so."

"Let's go take a look."

Daryl nods and they head up the stairs and into the cell Lottie's currently napping in. The sheet is only halfway up her chest and Rick nods at Daryl and he pulls it down.

"Can't tell." He mumbles, with her jacket on she could be hiding a damn raccoon in there and he'd never know.

"Unzip it. Slowly." Rick says and Daryl kneels down by the bed and looks up at Rick, frowning.

"Go ahead, it's okay." Rick adds, gently. Daryl nods, licks his lips and slowly begins pulling the zipper down until it's at the bottom, he leaves it hooked on.

"Holy shit, she swallowed a cow."

Rick stifles his laugh with the back of his hand, "Add that to the list of things you don't wanna say."

"Yeah." Daryl says, stunned, staring at the large ball that Lottie's stomach has become. He stares for a while and then pokes at it, whipping his hand back afterwards like her stomach might retaliate.

"Damn." He mumbles and then zips her jacket back up, pulls the sheet back over her and walks out with Rick on his heels.

Daryl walks to nearly the stairs and then stops, leans against the railing. Rick walks up to him and reaches for his shoulder, squeezes it.

"You scared?" He asks gently and Daryl considers lying, blowing it off like he can take anything but instead he blurts out the truth.

"Hell yeah, I'm scared. Bringing a kid into a world like this, I'm mad that she was out there all this time on her own with a baby, I shoulda been with her, I'm s'posed to be takin' care of her and I been doing a shitty job."

Rick frowns and squeezes his shoulder again, "You didn't know, none of us knew where she was, we had no way of contacting her, I guarantee you she doesn't blame you for any of this. You wanna take care of her then start now, make it up to her. She's exhausted and she's way too thin. Lori's the same way right now and they're a big priority. They're doing something just as important as huntin' or fighting and we need to treat 'em right. You're a good guy, Daryl, you just need to show her that. But I'm pretty sure she already knows." Rick claps his shoulder again and nods at him before walking down the stairs, leaving Daryl to think.

"Hey Glenn, how many cans of that spray paint do we have?"

Xxx

"Mmmph." Lottie wakes up nearly three hours later, she rolls onto her back and stares at the springs of the bed above her before lifting herself out of the bed, fixing her jacket. She runs a hand through her hair as she walks out of the cell, she peeks around for Daryl but doesn't see him so she walks down the stairs where all the others are sitting in a little circle on the ground.

Maggie and Beth's eyes are both red and their faces are puffy, they've been crying. Lori is practically covered in blood and she doesn't see Hershel. They're all talking animatedly and pleasantly with one another so Hershel was injured but he is alive. Sophia and Carl are talking about something she can't make out. No Daryl. Glenn is sitting next to Maggie and they're holding hands. Lottie smiles as she comes down the stairs.

"Oh, my goodness, let me get a look at you." Lori says, struggling to stand up and walking over to Lottie. She touches Lottie's hair and tugs at a strand of it, looking dazed and then she grabs Lottie's shoulders, bringing her into a tight hug. Lori feels the difference immediately and pulls back, staring at Lottie with wide eyes and an all knowing look on her face. She drops her left hand from Lottie's shoulder and puts it on Lottie's baby bump and then pulls it back, gasping.

"You're-?"

"Ssshhh! I haven't told Daryl yet, I think he just thinks I'm fat." Lottie laughs and Lori grins shaking her head.

"You ain't fat, c'mere." Lottie spins around to see Daryl standing at the top of the stairs, looking down at her. She can't read his face. She bites her lip nervously, glancing back at Lori before climbing the stairs to Daryl.

"You tryin' to hide somethin' from me?" He grumbles and she bites her lip again. He pulls her towards the guard booth and out of the other's view.

"No?" It comes out as more of a question than a statement and she tugs at her choppy strands of hair. He runs his hand through it.

"You thought I wouldn't notice?" He almost seems offended but he leans back against the wall of the booth and tugs her towards him, one hand on her waist and the other on her stomach. She squirms a little.

"I didn't know how to tell you… I thought you'd be mad at me for keeping it…another mouth to feed and all that."

"Well, I hope it likes squirrels 'cause I'm about sick of 'em." She makes a face at him and he rolls his eyes at her.

"I have gone my whole life without eating a squirrel and I don't plan on ever eating one for as long as I live. I kind of think she'd take my side on it."

"She?"

"I just…have a feeling, you know?" She says softly and he rolls his eyes again but bends down a bit and kisses her forehead.

"You cut all your damn hair off, you look like a guy." He says and she swats at him rather pathetically, pushing away.

"Well your hair's getting longer and you're starting to look like a girl, maybe I'm turning into a lesbian." She says with a look of utter innocence and confusion on her face. He snorts and grabs her to him again, "C'mere, gimpy, got something to show you."


	30. Chapter 30

_**Alright guys, the adventure is almost over, I'm wrapping this story to a close in a few chapters, I'm considering making it alternate ending but we'll see how it goes. Also, if you liked this I will be writing another DarylxOc fic immediately after! What can I say I have that boy on my brain~ **_

_**You should let me know what you think so far and what you think of a possible alternate ending! No spoilers!**_

_**Thanks for reading 3**_

_**Xxx**_

Xx

It wasn't a masterpiece but it was a step up from the other cells, Lori and Carol both told her that they were jealous. Daryl had spray painted the entire cell white and taken out the bunk beds, cleaned up the floor and laid two mattresses side by side on the floor and then two more on top of those two to make it comfier, he found clean sheets from the laundry room and put them on the bed along with extra pillows. He pinned a sheet up to serve as a door "for uhh, privacy" and she cried when she saw it.

"Don't tell me you're gonna be one of those chicks that's all emotional. I can't handle you cryin' about every damn thing all the damn time, girl."

She made a face at him and snapped her bra off, pulled it down her sleeve and threw it at him in one liquid motion. He was shocked to say the very least.

"I got you a present." She whispers late that night after more than a little messing around, they're lying beneath the sheets still naked and he's the big spoon, actually cuddling her. He reaches his hand forward and puts it on her belly. "A present better than a baby?" he asks, his mouth close to her ear and his voice is so gravelly and low that she shivers.

"I think so. Risked my damn life to get them." He growls at that, "No more doin' that. You were always doin' that in the first place and I thought it as stupid. Now that you got my kid in there," He prods at her belly, "I ain't gonna let it go so easy."

She smiles and mashes her lips all over his like she's trying to eat his face and he grumbles, "Get off me, woman, what are you a damn walker" but it's halfhearted at the very most.

Xxx

She wakes up breathing heavily sitting completely upright and clutching her stomach.

"What, whatsit?" Daryl grumbles from next to her, propping himself up on his elbows to look around, left arm already reaching for his crossbow.

"I heard something. I heard… I heard something, I heard… I don't know I heard singing."

"Singin'?"

She frowns at him and then crawls over him, abandoning the sheet that was covering her.

He blatantly watches her ass, "Damn your belly ain't the only thing that got bigger, that's for sure." She glares at him as she pulls on a pair of leggings and then her boots and tank top.

"Where you goin'?" He asks, annoyed now, "I don't hear nothin', just come back to bed." He's tired and annoyed but now she is too.

"You call me fat one more time and I'll break your fucking crossbow while you sleep." She snaps at him and he flinches back, shocked.

"I said I heard singing and it might be Annie, so I'm going to go look." She adds and then leaves the cell.

"Annie, what the shit…" He groans but gets himself out of bed.

She's down by the cellblock door when he catches up to her. "Lottie, come back to bed, there ain't no one out there."

"Don't you hear it?" She begs, her big eyes looking wider than ever and filled with desperation in the bit of moonlight peeking through the windows at the top of the building.

He frowns and looks away from those eyes, shaking his head.

"Please, I need to go out there. I hear her…" Daryl sighs, trying to decide what to do.

"Lottie, it's gettin' worse, ain't it?" He asks and she whips her head around to look at him. Her eyes searching his for something she can't seem to find.

"You really don't hear anything….There's….there's nothing there, is there?" He does meet her eyes this time and he shakes his head.

"Let's go back to bed." She says softly and he nods, wrapping his free arm around her waist and leading her back up the stairs.

Xxx

"Mmmmm" "Lottie? Lotttie!" "What is it, leave me alone,'m tired."

"Son of a bitch. Why you breathe like that, I can't hear nothin', your chest don't even go up." She blinks her eyes open to see Daryl crouched by the side of their makeshift bed, fully dressed, staring at her. She pets his head and he shakes her hand off, annoyed.

"You've been watching me sleep again?" She aks, sitting up and stretching. Daryl Dixon nearly blushes, "What you mean 'again'?"

She raises her eyebrows at him. "You're weird." He shoots out and then stands up and leaves the room. She giggles.

Xxx

"Lottie? Rick, you seen her?" Rick shakes his head.

"Damn it, I'm gonna glue her feet to the damn floor when I find her." He growls.

"I-I think she went outside." Glenn puts in from his spot with Maggie on the floor.

"You THINK or you KNOW?" Daryl growls and Glenn flinches away instantly, "I saw her go, she took her gun, I asked her and she told me you were already out there waiting for her."

"You didn't think to maybe ASK me?" He snarls and then hurries out to find her. She's barely at the gate to the guard tower when he gets to her.

"What the hell you doin' wanderin' off like that! I can't watch you ever damn second! You need to think about this baby, Lottie!"

She looks shocked and then extremely confused and then upset. She reaches out and touches him and then falls to the grass, crying her eyes out.

He groans and paces for a moment before crouching down next to her, "Look, I'm sorry about yellin' at you. I just told you not to go wanderin' around on your own." He grumbles and she brings her head out of her hands, tears are quickly flowing down her cheeks and her eyes are filled to the brim with more.

"It wasn't you yelling, Daryl, it's… I thought you were with me! You were here! We were walking together and then you were gone and then you come running up… I'm so confused! I thought… I thought you were here…" She breaks off sobbing and Daryl doesn't know what to do, how to help her.

He sits behind her so she can lean back on him. "You still have your pills, Lottie?" He asks softly, tucking her hair behind her ear.

She nods, still crying, "I can't take them with the baby, Daryl. I can't take them anymore."

He nods and holds her for a long time until she stops crying and then he helps her to her feet.

"I guess we might as well get what I came out here for in the first place." She says and he doesn't want her to leave the prison gates but she's looking up at him with tear-filled green eyes and he ends up agreeing. They walk out to where her car is parked a little down the road and she opens the trunk. He picks up a little toy giraffe and tosses it in the air, feels like shooting an arrow through it.

"You got baby stuff?" He asks and she nods, placing a hand over her stomach. "As soon as I realized I raided a mall, that was back when I was still able to run for more than oh, thirty seconds?" He smirks at that and quickly pecks the top of her head before throwing the giraffe in her face. She grins at him.

"Well in the mall there were other stores, you know…"

"Yeah." He replies, peering into the trunk.

She lifts up a big blanket and beneath it are two quivers filled with hard, plastic, crossbow arrows.

"Aw, shit." He says picking them up, grinning at them, pulling them out and looking them over, putting them into his crossbow and feeling them.

She laughs out loud and picks one up herself, "I think you're more excited about these than you are about bby Daryl." She says and he drops an arrow, turns to look at her.

"Thought you said it was gonna be a girl?" She laughs again, "Well, I don't know, that was last week. Today it's kicking me in the bladder every ten minutes and it's annoying as hell so it could potentially be a baby you."

He rolls his eyes at her and mutters out a "Damn women." Before pushing her against the back of the car and kissing her hard on the mouth.

Xxx

"Nah, you need more than that, take some of mine."

"Jesus Christ, first you're complaining that I'm fat and now you're trying to stuff me every chance you get, make up your mind please? Not that I'm complaining." She adds, stealing the crackers off his plate. He smirks at her and pokes her side.

"Wanna make sure you're feedin' my boy right. I know you weren't catchin' yourself no squirrels when you were out there on your own. Need to feed you." She stares at him for a long time before mumbling, "That was such a hillbilly, redneck, sweeter than sugar thing to say." And she kisses his cheek in front of everyone.

Xxx

Her tummy seemed to expand thirty inches overnight and she wakes up one morning with her breasts huge, her stomach gigantic and her back aching like a bitch. Daryl walks into the bedroom, eating his breakfast already and she makes grab hands at his plate. He looks down at her, eyebrow raised and pulls his plate away, "Maybe I've been feeding you too much, unless you snuck over to the next cellblock and ate those prisoners while I wasn't lookin'."

He watches his crossbow very closely for the next few days.

Xxx

She comes back from doing Lori's C-Section covered in blood, panting heavily, and with a wild look in her eyes. She can't stand for long with how big her stomach's gotten and how bad her knee is so after she stands at their door hyperventilating for a while, Daryl has to help her to the bed.

"Lori okay? Baby alive?" He asks and she grabs onto his shirt. "Don't want to do it. Done, so done, really really done. Please, for the love of god, shoot me. Shoot me in the head and then shoot my stomach afterwards, I don't want to do this. We have practically no anesthetics, she was screaming nearly the whole time, we almost lost her! I had to give her some of my blood, WHILE doing the C-section. Daryl notices the little white bandage on her forearm and frowns.

"So please, please, just kill me. I can't do this." She says again and looks into his eye, pleadingly.

He pushes her back onto the bed and then brings her legs up, he scoots her towards her side by the wall and then crawls in next to her, lying on his side facing her.

"Ain't gonna kill you. You're gonna have the baby. You're gonna be okay. You're gonna be a better mom than my mama and Lori, and anyone else. And I'm gonna protect you both and we're gonna have a lot more, and you're gonna be just fine."

She starts crying after that and he's come to be able to tell the "I'm confused and seeing things", "I'm sad and lonely", "You hurt my feelings", and "Oh god, you're the sweetest damn thing, kiss me Daryl, you're the best" tears apart from each other so he kisses her over and over and over again.


	31. Chapter 31

_**Okay, everyone! This is the last chapter! Where the Xxxs come down toward the end is the very ending and then I will be adding another chapter meant to be the ALTERNATE ENDING that is meant to be read JUST AFTER THOSE X'S. So if you like this ending and don't care for another one then the story ends here! If you're interested in the alternate ending then it is the next chapter!**_

_**Thanks for reading as always and please review to let me know what you think!**_

_**3**_

_**Xxx**_

Xx

She's waddled her way downstairs to check on Lori and the baby who are both doing fairly well. Daryl grunts at her from the top of the stairs and she peers up.

"What now?" She pouts.

"Don't want you walkin' around, you look like you're about to pop." He grumbles and Rick laughs from next to him.

"I'm not going to go into labor just walking down the stairs," She frowns, "Besides he likes the movement, it's like an earthquake and a rave at the same time to him."

Daryl rolls his eyes at her and starts walking down the stairs.

"Oh shit, then again, maybe you're right, uh, no 'I told you so's if you please." She says hurriedly, feeling the wetness seeping through her leggings.

"What you talking about?" He asks as he gets to her.

"It's coming-he's coming-I. My water just broke." Fear is filling her eyes and the next thing she knows, he's carrying her into the same empty cell they had used for Lori's C Section.

"SOMEONE GET CAROL, SHE SAID SHE'S HAVIN' THE KID!" He yells, leaving the cell.

"Wait! Come back! Don't leave me!" She calls to him, trying to sit up as a contraction hits her.

"Oh fuck me, oh fuck, oh no, don't want, please please please please please NO." She's talking to herself and then Annie is there beside the bed, grabbing her arm.

_Don't worry, it'll be over soon, okay? No worries here._

"Yeah, well you're not about to fucking push a child out of your vagina okay and have you seen the size of Daryl? This thing is probably going to be as big as baby horse."

Daryl reenters the room with Carol on her heels and Daryl stays awkwardly by the door.

"You don't need to be in here, Daryl, you can go pace in the hall the old fashioned way." She says grinning as another contraction hits her.

X

She's baring her teeth trying her hardest not to scream and she's huffing out little laughs as she grimaces.

"Oh, fuck me, Annie, I'm going to die, shit."

Carol hasn't remarked on the fact that she's talking to no one, she's kneeling down by Lottie's legs and she suddenly shouts, "Okay, another push, I can see the head!"

"Oh FUCK." She groans, trying to push along with the shattering pain of the contraction, and she can barely make out Daryl pacing back and forth in front of the cells.

"Okay, you've almost got it, one more push!" Carol calls and Lori enters the cell with a basin full of warm water, setting it on the ground in front of the bunk bed.

"How's it going?" She asks Carol and Carol shakes her head, "It's almost out but she's losing a lot of blood, I'm worried."

_You hear that, Loretta? He's almost out and you're losing too much blood, you might be with me soon!_

She grabs Lottie's hand and Lottie smiles up at her, another contraction hits and she pushes and she hears her baby cry, hears Carol call Daryl into the room, hears her say it's a boy and then Carol is frantically handing her baby to Lori, screaming at Daryl that she's losing too much blood and she sees Daryl standing over her, can just barely hear him calling her name over the high pitched whining noise that's filling her ears and she sees Annie's big, green eyes peering into hers before everything goes white.

X

She's walking down a bright white tunnel with Annie and she stops, still far off from the blinding white light that they appear to be walking into. She crouches down and Annie stops too, crouching down beside her.

"What's wrong? Why aren't you coming?" She's frowning.

"I-I hear my baby. I hear Daryl. I can't leave them." She shakes her head at her friend and Annie frowns deeper.

"Don't you want to be with me? You already left me once. Can't you come now?" She pleads and Lottie starts crying.

"I didn't leave you, Annie. You left me. You left me all alone, I didn't have any close family, any other friends. You shouldn't have died, you should have stayed…"

Annie looks angry, "You were the one driving the car, Loretta! I didn't _want_ to leave!"

"Please don't make it sound like it's my fault!" She sobs, "I blamed myself for it long enough but it was the truck, you know that! It ran the red light, it was going way faster than the speed limit, why didn't you just buckle your god damn belt?"

"I don't know." Annie replies softly, "I'm sorry, Lore… I'll help you get back. You're right. I'll see you again one day but you need to stay today. I can't believe you had a fucking baby with some redneck. I can't believe it!" She laughs and stands up, extends a hand to Lottie to help her back on her feet. Lottie sniffs and wipes her eyes.

"Yeah, well, there wasn't a lot to choose from, you bitch." She laughs and Annie playfully shoves at her, "Why weren't you at your new house in Georgia anyways? What were you doing just wandering around in the woods all lost? You know where your house is, don't you? Haven't you already been staying there for a few months?"

Lottie frowns, urging herself to remember.

XXX

Xxx

Xxx

Xx

X

Original Ending:

"No, I hadn't moved in yet. I came later on the plane then I was meant to, it was practically as soon as I left the hotel in a rental car that the outbreak happened, I hadn't found the house yet."

Annie makes an "Ahh" noise and holds her hand, leading her towards the sound of her baby and Daryl.

X

She gasps and pulls in a deep shuddering breath, there's a gun aimed at her head, Daryl is holding it, there are tears pouring down his face. She stares up at him.

"Can we name him Andy?" She asks softly and he drops to his knees by the bed, pulling her into his chest and making noises that sound like they could be either chuckles or sobs and she smiles, kissing his neck softly.

_**The End~**_


	32. Alternate Ending

_**Alright this is the Alternate Ending to Unwell! Please read the previous chapter down to the string of X's before coming here to read this or it won't make a drop of sense! Thanks for reading and please review to let me know what you think of this alternate ending!**_

_**Xxx**_

Xx

"Yeah…I…have been living at the house in Georgia… there are big concrete walls… I remember… I had it made special after Daddy died."

Annie nods at her.

"To cater to your paranoia. Remember? If you've never been there then how can you remember?"

Lottie frowns, "I do remember…I remember the big metal gates at the front, the huge concrete walls, the security cameras, I remember painting the rooms myself, I remember the pantry has that stupid looking light that hangs down and always makes me think it's a spider before I turn it on… How can I remember? How do I remember?"

Annie is grinning at her and Lottie searches her eyes for an answer when she hears;

"_I'm not crazy, I'm just a little unwell. I know, right now you can't tell. But stay awhile and maybe then you'll see, a different side of me." _

_X_

Lottie wakes with a gasp just as the door slams open. She looks around her, she's in the break room at the hospital, she fell asleep on the couch.

"_I'm not crazy, I'm just a little impaired, I know right now you don't care. But soon enough you're gonna think of me, and how I used to be." _

It's playing on the small radio on the table next to the couch. She stares at it for a moment through sleep blurred eyes.

"Hey, girl, I know your shift's over but I thought you had another job you had to get yer ass to!" Lucille, another nurse, is grinning at her from the door.

"It's nearly six, Lottie, yer gonna be late."

Lottie rolls her eyes, trying to shake off the dream, she puts a hand to her stomach and it's flat, _There is no baby, there is no Daryl_.

She shakes her head and sits up, checks her watch and shit, she is running late. She hurries to her locker and pulls on a pair of leggings, the same she had been wearing in her dream and she shakes her head again, pulling on a tank top and her work apron, tying her long, blonde hair back into a pony tail and fixing her makeup. She shakes a pill out of her little orange prescription bottle and dry swallows it, grabbing her bag and rushing out the door, bidding Lucille a hasty goodbye.

She runs through the parking lot until she finds her little, blue Prius. She peels out of the parking lot and hurries to her second job, bar tending at a little place in the small town near her house. She pulls up the dirt drive and parks, rushing into the bar.

Her boss is standing there, he's a young guy, about her age, and he's nice to her. His arms are folded over his chest like he's mad but he's smirking.

"You're late, Loretta, you get lost again?" He chuckles and she grins, running behind the bar and relieving the other girl there.

"Thank God, Loretta, I was wondering when you'd get your ass here. Pair of assholes at the end of the bar are driving me nuts." She shakes her head and pats Lottie on the shoulder before pushing through the little doors at the end of the bar, waving goodbye to their boss, Brian.

"Hey, could use another beer down here!" A scratchy voice calls and she spots a gruff looking man down at the end of the bar and hurries his way.

"Sorry, just got here." She says, smiling and he waves her off. He's wearing a wife beater with a nasty looking black vest over it he looks vaguely familiar.

"Well hello there, sweet thing." His country accent just makes the line worse and she's close to rolling her eyes, "Name's Merle, honey. Grab me a bud lite, will ya?" He says and her eyes widen, her smile fades.

"Uh, sure." She says, giving a weak, fake smile before going to grab one from the cooler, "And another for my baby brother!" He shouts to her and she nods, pulling two from the fridge and when she turns back Daryl is sitting there next to the other guy. Her breath hitches in her throat and she stares at him.

He stares back.

"What you lookin' at?" He eyes her, annoyed. He's wearing an ugly, beige wife beater and his hair looks lighter in color. She continues to stare and then shakes her head, sliding the beers onto the counter.

"Hey, honey, you hear about all the crazy shit happenin'? They say there's some disease goin' round and not to go to any hospitals less you're already dyin'?"

She stares at the counter for a moment, "Biting? Are they-are they saying people are being bitten?"

Daryl eyes her suspiciously, "Yeah, they're saying they're goin' crazy, it's like mad cow or somethin'. People turnin' into cannibals though."

She stares at him, "Uh, I'm Loretta." She says softly and he narrows his eyes at her. "Do you know me or somethin'?" He asks and she gives a little smile before shaking her head, "I…guess not." She shrugs, trying to take everything in.

"Do you want to?" He adds, in the low, grumbling voice she recognizes so well.

She turns back to him and bites her lip, looking between him and his brother.

"I'd love to, actually." She says nearly shyly just as a scream erupts from one of the booths in the back of the bar; "HE BIT ME, GET HIM OFF!"

She nearly grins, spotting the aluminum bat kept by cooler and grabbing it.


End file.
